Costa Navarino, Greece
Thomas Bach will be leaving the International Olympic Committee (IOC) much richer as reforms he introduced have been credited with injecting a 60 percent revenue growth for the Olympic Movement.
Bach steps down on Thursday after completing two four-year terms with seven candidates lined up to succeed him at Thursday’s IOC elections here in Costa Navaro on the shores of the Mediterranean.
The seven candidates are Great Britain’s World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, Spain’s IOC Vice President Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, France’s International Cycling Union head David Lappartient, Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister Kirsty Coventry, Japan’s International Gymnastics Federation leader Morinari Watanabe, British-Swede Johan Eliasch, who is President of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation,and Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan.
The IOC’s 144th session started here on Wednesday after Tuesday’s official opening ceremony at Olympia, the birthplace of Olympic movement, with the chairman of the IOC’s Finance Commission, Ser Miang Ng, announcing that IOC raked in $7.7 billion in revenue (2021-2024) and has $7.5billion for the next Olympiad with 90 percent being set asideto support athletes and sporting organisations.
“The IOC’s commercial revenues for the 2021-2024 Olympiad stand at $7.7 billion. This is a clear demonstration that the Olympic brand remains strong and interest in commercial partnerships with the IOC is robust,” the IOC later said in a statement quoting Miang Ng after Wednesday’s session.
“Thanks to the success of commercial partnerships and the growth in commercial revenue, the IOC continues to distribute 90 per cent of its revenue to sport worldwide, spread over the Olympiad, for the benefit of the Olympic Movement, including the athletes, International Federations, National Olympic Committees, Organising Committees, and Recognised Organisations, for the development of sport worldwide.
“This means that over the last four years, the IOC has distributed the equivalent of $4.7 million every day to help athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.”
Looking to the future, for the next Olympiad, 2025-2028, the IOC has already secured revenues of $7.5 billion to date.
Beyond that, for the Olympiad 2029-2032, $6.9 billion are already secured, with a further $4 billion for the Olympiad 2033-2036.
This healthy financial situation can be largely attributed to the reforms of Olympic Agenda.
“Through these reforms, the IOC has overhauled its governance processes, strengthened its credibility, and reinforced the relevance of the Olympic Games,” Miang Ngsaid.
“This has resulted in a robust Olympic brand with commercial partners keen to associate themselves with the Olympic values. In turn, this has enabled the IOC to diversify its revenue sources – a key recommendation of the Olympic Agenda.
“This is all the more remarkable given the global challenges of recent years, characterised by international conflicts, a pandemic, inflation and global economic uncertainty. It is a testament to the prescience of the Olympic Agenda reforms adopted just over a decade ago.”
Miang Ng added: “The financial success is clear and in no doubt, it is demonstrated by facts and figures over the past and future Olympiads.
“These achievements enabled the IOC to continue to provide long-term strong support to athletes and the Olympic Movement. Under President Bach’s leadership since 2013, which is the entire period of implementation of the reforms of Olympic Agenda, the IOC has so far secured an impressive $30 billion in commercial revenues.”
Wednesday’s IOC session reviewed reports by various committees, including Ethics, Audit, Finance, Administration and also by the various IOC commissions with Thursday’s session at the Romanos Resort set aside for reports from the IOC’s Co-ordination Commission and organisers of the various just-concluded and upcoming summer and winter Games before the elections are held from 4pm local time.
President Bach will issue a statement to journalists at the Costa Navarino venue before the newly-elected IOC President addresses journalists roughly one hour after the end of the elections at the Costa Navarino Media Centre.
On Friday, the IOC Session will elect the host of the next IOC Session in 2027 before tackling anti-doping matters and reviewing the activities of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport.
A final IOC Press Conference will be held at 1.30pm local time. (Report compiled by Pura Vida Reporter from IOC resources)
This update is generally attributed to Pura Vida’s Content team. Feel free to shared any feedback or or relevant info incase of inaccuracies.
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