International Olympic Committee : News

Salvador stadium officially opens

4/8/2013 1:30:00 PM

The brand new stadium, built at a cost of nearly US$300m, has been selected to stage the Olympic football tournament in 2016. This summer, three matches of the FIFA Confederations Cup will take place in the arena, and it will also stage six FIFA World Cup matches in 2014.

The arena has maintained its original identity, keeping its horseshoe shape with a large opening in the southern part of the stands. The opening establishes a direct relation to the adjacent inner city lake and, simultaneously, provides optimal airflow in the stadium bowl itself.

The unique form also means the arena can be used for other events all year round, as stages for concerts and theatre events can be put in the area at the opening without conflicting with the pitch and the football matches during the football season.

Sustainability was key to the design and construction of Arena Fonte Nova, with materials carefully selected in order to minimise the stadium’s energy consumption, and concrete from the former stadium recycled and used as building material. It also uses rainwater to reduce water consumption.

Brazil President Dilma Rousseff, speaking at the inauguration ceremony prior to the opening match, said: “We are an unbeatable country. We will show that Brazil can deliver great quality to the Confederations Cup, the World Cup and the Olympics.”

Rio 2016 moves to new headquarters

3/12/2013 11:03:00 AM

The modern building, which has been designed to be as sustainable and accessible as possible, will house both the Rio 2016 Organising Committee and the Municipal Olympic Company until after the Games have been held.

“Having all teams gathered in a single building, together with the Municipal Olympic Company, makes our task easier and helps to integrate the teams,” explained Rio 2016 President Carlos Arthur Nuzman.

Modular technology was used during construction of the new headquarters, allowing faster assembly as well as the possibility of dismantling and reusing the structure after the Games.

The building also features rainwater harvesting and energy saving systems, as well as furniture made of certified wood. The air conditioning and lighting systems also help reduce energy use, while solar energy panels will help power the building.

Accessibility was also carefully considered during construction, with ramps and elevators enabling wheelchair access and Braille signposting and tactile floor coverings aiding orientation for blind visitors.

“Modernity and sustainability mark the new headquarters,” added Nuzman. “The modular construction is an innovation that better suits our project. We will use the building according to the Committee’s growth demands and, in the end, it will be possible to dismantle the structure, to reuse it elsewhere.”

Benefits of hosting London 2012 will be ongoing

8/12/2012 8:00:00 AM

The regeneration of East London and particularly Stratford, the site of the Olympic Park, will bring untold benefits to the area and the local communities that live there.

The Olympic Park will be transformed into the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, and the permanent venues within it will bring new leisure facilities to the area. The increased focus on the area brought by the Games coupled with an improvement in transport links and the new shopping centre next to the Park will bring greater visitor numbers and continued investment to the borough.

Permanent venues such as the Velodrome and the Aquatics centre will not only offer affordable facilities to encourage residents of the capital to get involved in sporting activities, they will also have the facilities to host world-class events. These will attract further tourism to London providing an ongoing boost for businesses operating in the capital.

The sporting legacy created by the Games will also have a lasting impact on the capital and its residents. London 2012 has generated a lot of interest in sport and a number of initiatives are already in place to capitalise on the enthusiasm generated and encourage people to get involved.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson described this week how London must continue the momentum created by the Games to secure a lasting legacy for the capital. “We can secure a transport, housing, infrastructure, sporting, cultural and social legacy from these Games and turn these Games to gold for decades to come,” he added.

London 2012 set to provide lasting sporting legacy

7/24/2012 12:25:00 AM

But the Games are not just about the record-breaking feats that are sure to be witnessed in the Olympic Stadium and at venues across London and the UK; they can also provide long-term sporting legacies, which provide benefits long after the Games have finished.

From new state-of-the-art sporting facilities to increased participation in organised sport, the Games can create a variety of sporting legacies and are a powerful tool to help promote and develop sport not only in the host city itself, but also in the host region and host country.

Helping to create sporting legacies

The London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) has already initiated a number of programmes to help create sporting legacies from this year’s Games, which former Olympic triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards, who has been working with LOCOG for the last seven years, was keen to highlight on Monday.

“There are two things you need to create sports legacy,” he explained. “You need inspiration, and we as an Organising Committee are 110% focused on delivering an amazing Games, and that will provide inspiration, of that I have absolutely no doubt.

“You also need the opportunity,” he continued. “All the excitement in the world, all the inspiration in the world, will only last a couple of weeks if you don't have the right places to go and to follow it through. What we have been doing over the last six or seven years is to make sure that is the case; that the opportunity is there.”

The Get Set programme

LOCOG’s work to build a legacy from the Games includes Get Set – the official London 2012 education programme – which has been initiated in over 26,000 schools, helping to encourage young people aged 3-19 to find out more about the Games and explore the Olympic Values of excellence, friendship and respect, while also getting involved in sport.

LOCOG has also looked further afield than the host country, with the International Inspiration programme benefiting 13 million children in 20 different countries through high-quality and inclusive physical education, sport and play.

New sporting facilities

The construction of new sporting facilities, such as the Olympic Stadium, Velodrome and Lee Valley White Water Centre, has also provided a legacy from the Games, with London set to host a number of elite level sporting events in the years following London 2012, including the 2015 World Athletics Championships and the 2015 World Canoe Slalom Championships.

Edwards was also keen to stress that the sporting legacies of London 2012 will not solely be restricted to the elite level, highlighting the power that the 2012 Games will have to inspire young people to take up sport.

“It is the young kids who will be sitting there at home, some of them will come and watch in the stadiums, who will see the best athletes in the world and the best British athletes doing amazing things, and want to get up off their sofa, on to their feet, into local clubs, into their schools, and try it for themselves, but we have to build the right foundation for that,” he explained. “I think one of the things I am most proud of, as a member of the Organising Committee, is that we have never lost track of that twin goal of a great sporting event and a legacy afterwards.”

The Knowledge Games

7/22/2012 6:34:00 PM

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) works closely with the host cities and their local partners, right from the outset to ensure that they have access to the latest knowledge that has been gained from the hard work and experience of previous Games hosts. This IOC programme is known as Olympic Games Knowledge Management (OGKM).

IOC Executive Director for the Olympic Games Gilbert Felli noted the importance of the OGKM programme when he spoke to the Olympic Review last year: “Managing knowledge is at the core of our mission. Carefully documenting what Games organisers (OCOGs) do, sharing best practices and making available everything we've learnt from the recent past has become an invaluable support to the OCOGs and their partners. Successful knowledge management and transfer is about checking there is always enough high-quality oil in your engine. It enables you to perform and it contributes largely to organisational excellence. But it goes beyond the field of play and the event itself. It encompasses sustainability and legacy aspects, making sure that whatever is built for the Games is always designed with legacy in mind.

OGKM provides a number of different services to the Games organisers including workshops and seminars – about 20 to 30 are held each year on topics such as telecoms technology, signage and sustainability -, a network of advisers with Games experience that the OCOGs are able to call upon throughout their lifecycle, and access to a dedicated extranet containing invaluable insight and information in the form of interviews, Olympic Games Knowledge Reports, Technical Manuals and other documentation, such as venue information and post-Games analysis.

However, perhaps one of the most important aspects of the OGKM programme is the ability for future organisers to gain hands-on experience by participating in secondee and observer programmes – for example, over 530 observers will participate in the London 2012 observer programme. This on-site knowledge gathering then allows for more detailed discussions to take place during the Games debrief, which is normally held in the next host city of the Games. The London debriefing will be held in Rio de Janeiro in November this year.

In comments to the Olympic Review last year, London 2012’s Chris Pollard underlined the close collaboration that is built up between the different organisers and the IOC thanks to the OGKM programme: "Over the years I've been working at LOCOG we've developed really close and strong relationships with the IOC team in charge of coordinating the Olympic Games knowledge management platform. That's been helped by them being proactive. They've hosted some really valuable knowledge-sharing sessions, in particular collaborating with Rio 2016 and Sochi 2014 to ensure we all share ideas. They've listened to us as well - and adapted the processes to be more efficient for us and for future OCOGs."

However, OGKM doesn’t just include passing on the experience and knowledge gained in the past, it also looks to the future and new trends and consumption modes, as well as new methods and technology. Working hand-in-hand with OCOGs and all other partners, the IOC strives to understand and define the parameters of future editions of the Games.

Thanks to these different elements, the IOC fulfils its aim of helping bid cities and Organising Committees to develop their own vision and understand how a host city and its citizens can benefit from the long-lasting impact of the Games, while managing the opportunities and risks that such an event produces.

Beijing enjoying multiple post-Games legacies

7/19/2012 3:00:00 PM

As well as building stunning venues – such as the Bird’s Nest Stadium and the Water Cube Aquatics Centre – Beijing made considerable improvements to the city’s transport network ahead of the 2008 Games, which are providing long-term benefits for residents and visitors.

Several significant projects were initiated, including the construction of a new terminal and runway at the city’s international airport, which increased passenger capacity from 20–25 million in 2002, to 65–75 million in 2008.

The investment also led to a complete expansion of the Beijing main road network and a massive extension and renovation of the Beijing metro, with the addition of several new subway lines and a high-speed rail link to Tianjin.

In total, public transport capacity was increased by 4.5 million, leading to a reduction in road congestion. Authorities also invested in air quality improvements, with 60,000 coal-burning boilers being upgraded to reduce emissions and more than 4,000 public buses being converted to run on natural gas – more than any other city in the world.

There were also significant improvements in water treatment facilities, ahead of the Games, while Hans Troedsson of the World Health Organisation described, at the time, the public health legacies as “a long-term gift to China”, with 100,000 Chinese chefs receiving food cleanliness classes, 200,000 additional food inspectors being hired, and a new disease prevention and control system put in place in Beijing.

The Games also had a considerable effect on education, with the Beijing 2008 Organising Committee (BOCOG) partnering with China’s Education Ministry and the Chinese Olympic Committee to launch a joint Olympic education programme, which reached 400 million Chinese children by integrating Olympic education into the existing curriculum of over 400,000 schools. Pupils were able to learn about the Olympic values, the history of the Olympic Games, Olympic sports and the Olympic Movement’s contribution to international peace and friendship.

Beijing 2008 also lead to the creation of a new culture of volunteerism, with over 1.1 million people applying to be volunteers at the Games, while attitudes and perceptions of the disabled and disadvantaged members of the community were also changed as a result of the Games, with new wheelchair ramps for streets, shopping centres and cultural attractions installed.

And Beijing’s famous sporting venues are also providing a long-term legacy for the city, with the Water Cube now being used as a leisure facility, featuring water slides, a wave pool and spa areas, while the Bird’s Nest Stadium has hosted a variety of sporting events and will also stage the 2015 World Athletics Championships.

London 2012 leads on sustainability

7/18/2012 10:56:00 AM

Sustainability has been a key consideration for the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) since London started to bid for the Games, which will begin in less than 10 days’ time. Major achievements include the creation of the Olympic Park, which is the largest new urban parkland created in Europe for 150 years; and the construction of the Olympic Stadium, which is the most sustainable Olympic stadium in history and has been completed on time, on budget and to high sustainability standards.

In addition, London 2012 will be the first Olympic Games to measure its carbon footprint over the entire project term, and is also the first Games to commit to a zero waste-to-landfill target through the strategic Zero Waste Games Vision. In 2011, LOCOG also became the first Games Organising Committee to be independently certified to the British Standard 8901: Specification for a Sustainability Management System for Events, and has contributed to the development of ISO 20121 - the international standard on sustainability in event management, which will supersede BS 8901 and be part of a potentially very influential global legacy.

Learn more about London 2012 sustainability action here

A recent IOC publication, entitled “Sustainability through Sport: Implementing the Olympic Movement’s Agenda 21”, contains a summary of progress made over the last 20 years – related to the Olympic Games and beyond. Besides looking back, the new publication also takes a look forward to determine the steps that need to be made to involve future generations – today’s young people – in the process of working towards greater sustainability.

Click here for the full version of “Sustainability through Sport: Implementing the Olympic Movement’s Agenda 21”.

Learn more about the IOC’s initiatives here

Watch a clip to see how London’s young people help to clean up the environment ahead of the Games here:

London 2012: Embedding sustainability from the outset

7/18/2012 3:51:00 PM

Q. Can you outline some of the work you’ve done to make London 2012 as sustainable as possible?
A. Embedding sustainability principles into the vision and the policies for delivering the Games was a crucial starting point. The big piece really has been the transformation of the Olympic Park site – taking what was a large, derelict, polluted and largely inaccessible area and transforming it into the largest new parkland in the UK or Europe for around 150 years or so. That really is a massive transformation - sustainability on a large scale.

You can look at it on another level, and where we’ve done a lot more than perhaps previous Games, is really look into the sourcing of all the materials and Games operation areas. So we’ve looked at the types of materials used for construction, merchandise, food and even workforce uniforms – everything from the micro details to the really big stuff, such as building the venues.

Then we’ve done some innovative things around carbon footprinting, developing a methodology that allows us to predict the carbon emissions associated with the Games so that we can use it as a tool for managing those down as much as possible, rather than traditionally just reporting on them. We’ve used it as a forward-looking estimate and that’s quite an interesting approach that other projects may adopt.

Q. How much did you look at what past Games had done?
A. A fair amount, even going back to Sydney, which was before our bid. I spent a couple of months working with their environment team before and during the Games, so there was a lot of pre-bid work, looking at how the Olympic Movement was addressing these issues. There was a lot of observations and analysis. So we did pay a lot of attention to previous Games, but it is a new and emerging area and we were looking at a lot of topics that hadn’t been addressed before.

Q. What challenges have you faced?
A. Well the biggest challenge is that you’ve got to do all of this on time. There is an unforgiving programme and it is done under intense public scrutiny. You’ve got to deliver on time and on budget and there’s a massive amount of stakeholder interest. Then you’ve got the engineering challenge of taking a site that really was a big mess and in that tight programme time cleaning it up, demolishing the old and building the new.

Q. What would you consider to be your biggest successes?
A. I think the park itself is stunning and we really have taken that poorly developed site and transformed it. We’ve got great venues and the parkland looks superb. We’ve actually got a real park within the site. We’ve got rivers and parkland that are well established. We’ve had three growing seasons, so a lot of the trees and wetland vegetation look like they’ve been there for ages. It’s got a really great parkland feel to it. That’s going to be something quite special.

Q. What sustainable legacies do you hope the Games will leave?
A. That’s a really interesting area because it goes way beyond the physical stuff, such as buildings, infrastructure and parkland. There’s a massive amount of new understanding of how events can be managed in a more sustainable way. Probably one of the biggest successes in that respect is that we’ve helped inspire the development of a new international standard – ISO20121 – which is a management system standard. What’s nice about that is that it’s a process rather than a prescriptive thing. It’s more about how you go about putting sustainability into the organisation, understanding the issues and dealing with stakeholders.

It’s a great tool for helping future organisers manage these things relevant to the situation they’re in, but for us it’s a great legacy. Before, there was no appropriate standard that addressed sustainability in events and could be audited. It gives you something that you can become certified to and that will help stakeholders believe that you’re doing something properly.

Q. How much input have you had from the IOC?
A. I think it’s important to stress that it’s a two-way thing. In the early days, they facilitated technical briefings with people from previous Games and through things like the World Conferences on Sport and the Environment you get the opportunity to meet and work with your peers from other Organising Committees. It’s also two-way – all the things that we’ve learnt are reported back and they can help the IOC guide future OCOGs more effectively, which can shorten the learning curve. Organising Committees start from scratch, so if you can fast-track some of the learning and avoid some of the pitfalls then that is immensely helpful. Working with the IOC to improve and develop knowledge transfer is really critical and that is what we’ve been doing a lot.

Q. What advice would you give future Organising Committees?
A. The key things are starting early and having a clear vision. You can’t do sustainability looking backwards; it has to be done looking forwards. It has to be part of the culture of the Organising Committee and the whole programme. And the final point would be to plan for legacy. Legacy doesn’t happen after the Games – it only works if you think about it in everything that you do.

Richmond mayor hails legacies of Vancouver 2010

7/17/2012 9:05:00 AM

In particular, Mayor Malcolm Brodie highlighted the benefits that Richmond has enjoyed as a result of the 2010 Winter Games, such as the Richmond Olympic Oval, which was built especially for the long-track speed skating events and has since become a highly successful community facility that includes an indoor track, two ice rinks, badminton courts, volleyball courts and a 23,000-square-foot fitness centre.

“The Richmond Olympic Oval met long-standing community needs for expanded and enhanced indoor sport and recreation facilities,” Brodie told Olympic.org. “The Oval has become the destination of choice for our community for sports, recreation, fitness, wellness and special events. It provides world class facilities that are used every day by a wide spectrum of our community. More than two million users have already visited the Oval. Dozens of summer and winter sports occur within the Oval. We have approximately three dozen sport users groups that are regular tenants of the Oval, including four sport leagues which account for more than 100,000 visits annually alone. Membership in the Oval has already surpassed 2013 targets and members account for about 20,000 visits monthly.”

Brodie also recognised the economic benefits that Richmond has enjoyed as a result of the Games.

“Hosting the Games spurred an initial $2 billion of new investment in Richmond for new public infrastructure and private development and was the catalyst for the creation of a new urban waterfront community that is growing around the Oval,” he said. “Since the Games, there has been a renewed interest in development within our City Centre, where the Oval is located, and currently more than $4 billion in new development is underway or moving through the approval process just within our City Centre.”

But Brodie was also keen to stress the importance of proper legacy planning when preparing for the Games.

“Pre-planning was extremely important to our success,” he said. “City staff and members of our City Council visited several Olympic speed skating ovals and other Olympic venues. They also met with numerous local government, facility and other representatives before we even confirmed going forward with our bid to build the Oval. This due diligence was extremely important in confirming the importance of building a venue that was designed not just to meet the needs of the Olympic Games, but which had a strong, viable business plan for its use post-Games. In the end, our plans for the Oval were always focused on maximising its post-Games viability and legacy potential, while also ensuring it met the shorter term needs of the Olympic Games.”

Brodie also emphasised the benefits gained from liaising with previous Olympic host cities to learn from their experiences.

“Our meetings with representatives from other Olympic cities helped us understand the transformative benefits that were available from hosting the Games,” he said. “Thus, we developed our comprehensive 2010 plan well in advance of the Games that sought to take advantage of as many of the opportunities presented by the Games as possible and use them to create long-term legacies for our city. ”

And Brodie was also keen to highlight the role played by the IOC in helping plan for a post-Games legacy.

“We also committed to working closely with the IOC, Vancouver and other members of the Olympic family as we recognised that collaboration would be essential for all of us achieve our mutual goals and collectively be seen as outstanding hosts and presenters of the Games,” he said.

Barcelona “totally transformed” by hosting 1992 Olympic Games

7/17/2012 2:17:00 PM

“We have been very committed to sport for a long, long time now,” said Trias. “It all started with the 1992 Olympic Games, which totally transformed our city. There was a great effort from the city council and the society of Barcelona who really threw their weight behind the Games.

“In Barcelona, holding major sports competitions is now a key part of our development and I’m convinced that sport is the perfect way to inject life into a city, to improve its well-being and to put it on the international stage.

“The capacity for organising events in our city just grows and grows. Every weekend there is some kind of sporting event going on in Barcelona and more than 40,000 girls and boys take part in competitions organised here.

“Our marathon, for example, has grown by 20 per cent with every edition. This is not happening by chance. We’ve really thrown our weight behind increasing participation in sport for everyone, especially those who are suffering physical or economic difficulties, and that is where we will continue to invest in sport.”

Barcelona’s Deputy Mayor of Quality of Life, Equality and Sports, Maite Fandos, also hailed the positive impact of hosting the 1992 Games, highlighting the confidence and global exposure that the city gained from staging the event.

“When you see you can host an edition of the Olympic Games – and 1992 was the best in history in our view – it gives you great self-esteem,” she said at the Global Sports Forum. “It placed us on the world map from a sporting point-of-view and led to other events coming to the city.”

Fandos also highlighted the economic benefits that Barcelona has enjoyed as a result of the 1992 Games.

"What is amazing is the breadth of impact that the Olympic Games can have – not only as a sporting event but also in terms of economic regeneration," she said. "They create a significant amount of jobs for local people. Equally, the Games are a unique opportunity to showcase the city to the world because hosting the Games successfully helps bring both sporting and non-sporting events to the city.

"Barcelona is the inspiration for any city holding an Olympic Games after what happened in 1992.”