What is the IOC? International Olympic Committee: flag, funding, commissions, committees and structures

What is the IOC? The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is an international non-profit non-governmental organization based in Lausanne (Switzerland). It was created by Pierre de Coubertin on June 23, 1894, and her first president was Dimitri Vikelas. To date, it has 100 active members, 32 honorary members and 1 honorary member. The Committee is the supreme body of the modern world Olympic movement.

What is the IOC?

The International Olympic Committee organizes modern Olympic and Youth Olympic Games, held in summer and winter every four years. The first Summer Olympic Games, organized by the IOC, took place in the homeland of the Olympics, in Athens, in 1896. Winter Olympics for the first time in the history of mankind (in ancient Greece, no Winter Games were held) was held in 1924 in the city of Chamonix, in the north of France. Until 1992, both games were held in the same year. After that, the Committee shifted the Winter Olympics in even-numbered years between summer to help the organizers of both events coordinate their actions and not interfere with each other, and also to improve the financial condition of the IOC, which receives a large income in the Olympic years. The first Summer Youth Olympic Games were held in Singapore in 2010, and the first winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 2012.

What does the flag of the International Olympic Committee look like?

The IOC flag is a combination of five rings (three top, two bottom). They are intertwined. Each ring has its own color: blue, black, red, yellow and green. They all mean the five continents of the earth. The IOC flag has a white background.

IOC Mission

The mission of the International Olympic Committee, according to its statutory documents, is to promote Olympians around the world and popularize the Olympic movement. He should do the following:

• To support the full and systematic development of sport throughout the world, to promote its spread throughout the world;
• Ensure that the Games are held in accordance with the established schedule;
• Cooperate with competent public or private organizations and authorities;
• To fight against any attempts to discredit the Olympic movement;
• To combat the discrimination of women in world sports, to protect the equality of men and women.

IOC Session

The session of the International Olympic Committee is the main collegial organ of the organization. It meets once a year. The principle of equality of votes is implemented, in which each member has only one vote. IOC headquarters in Lausanne is the official venue for the session.

Extraordinary sessions may be convened by either the president or 1/3 of the total number of members. However, the Rules say that it is the decision of the IOC to take too often and unreasonably.

Among other things, the IOC session is entitled to:

• Accept or amend the Olympic Charter.
• Elect IOC members, honorary president and honorary members.
• Elect a president, vice-presidents and all other members of the IOC Executive Committee.
• Choose the host city of the Olympic Games.

Honors

In addition to the Olympic medals for the competitors, there are the following IOC awards:

1. Trophy of the President of the IOC. It is the highest award awarded to athletes who excelled in their sport, had an unusual career and had an impressive influence on their sport.

2. Medal of Pierre de Coubertin. It is awarded to athletes who demonstrate a special sporting spirit at the Olympic Games. Many thought earlier that the IOC officially calls the Olympic medals themselves, but this is not so.

3. The Olympic Cup. It is given to institutions or associations with indication of merit and contribution to the active development of the Olympic movement.

4. The Olympic Order. Awarded to individuals for a particularly outstanding contribution to the Olympic movement. He replaced the Olympic certificate, which existed before.

Membership in the IOC

Over the years, the countries from which the entire IOC structure is being formed have sent two members to the IOC. Later, the order gradually began to change. As a result, the basis was the formation at the elections of the respective committees of countries from among their members.

Termination of membership

Membership in the IOC is terminated in the following cases:

1. Resignation . A member of the IOC can terminate his powers by submitting a written resignation letter to the president.

2. Lack of re-election. A member of the IOC ceases to be without further formalities if he has not been re-elected.

3. Achieving the maximum permissible age. The member of the IOC will terminate the authority at the end of the year, during which he reached the age of 80 years.

4 . Refusal to attend sessions for two consecutive years.

5. Change of residence or citizenship.

6. Individuals elected as active athletes cease to be members of the IOC Athletes Commission when they retire.

7. The IOC President and senior management positions within the NOC, the world or the continental associations of NOCs, IFs and so on, recognized as having ceased to be authorized by the decision of the IOC.

8. Exception: an IOC member may be expelled by decision of the session if he has sworn his oath, or if the Session believes that he has neglected the interests of the IOC or deliberately endangers them, or acted in a way that is unworthy for an IOC member.

Financing of the IOC

In the early 1980s, the Olympic Games largely depended on revenues from a single source - contracts with US television companies to broadcast the Olympic Games. After being elected president of the IOC in 1980, Juan Antonio Samaranch acknowledged this vulnerability and, in consultation with Horst Dassler, a member of the Adidas family, decided to launch the global marketing program of the IOC. Samaranch appointed a Canadian member of the IOC Richard Pound chairman of the IOC Commission "New Sources of Finance."

In 1982, the Swiss sports marketing company ISL Marketing developed for the IOC a global marketing program for the Olympic movement. ISL has successfully developed the program, but has been replaced by the management company Meridian, which is partly owned by the IOC since the early 1990s.

In 1989, one of the ISL Marketing staff, Michael Payne joined the IOC and became the first marketing director of the organization. However, ISL and subsequently Meridian played a still more significant role in increasing the number of sales and marketing agents for 2002. For 17 years, in cooperation with ISL and subsequently with Meridian, Payne made a great contribution to the creation of a sponsored marketing multi-billion program, which, along with improving TV marketing and improving financial management, helped restore the financial viability of the IOC. The Olympics began to bring huge profits. In 2002, the Committee terminated its relationship with Meridian and headed for its marketing program under the leadership of Timo Lumme, Managing Director of Marketing Services.

Income

The Olympic movement receives income from five main programs. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) manages broadcasting partnerships and the World Sponsorship Program of the Olympic Movement. Organizing committees for managing internal sponsors, selling tickets and licensing programs in the host country are also under the direction of the IOC. The Olympics earns a total of more than $ 4 billion. The record in the interim periods is $ 2.5 billion in revenue during the Olympic four-year period from 2001 to 2004. It's hard to believe what the IOC gets for 4 years, but their marketing really does bring serious results.

Revenue distribution

IOC distributes a part of the income to organizations throughout the Olympic Movement in order to support the preparation and holding of the Olympic Games and to promote the development of sports throughout the world. The International Olympic Committee retains about 10% of revenues from Olympic marketing for operational and administrative expenses.

National Olympic Committees

NOCs receive financial support for the training and development of Olympic teams, Olympic athletes and future athletes. The organization distributes revenues between the Committees around the world. The Committee also contributes to the Olympic television and radio broadcasting, the development of Olympic solidarity, as well as to other Olympic projects that have the greatest need for funding.

The success of Olympic marketing and the conclusion of the Olympic broadcast agreements allowed the organization to provide increased support to the NOC with each Olympic four-year cycle.

International Olympic Sports Federations (IFs)

IOC is currently the largest source of income for most MSF, as its contribution from the income of the whole organization helps IFs in developing relevant sports around the world. IOC provides financial support, starting with 28 MSF on Olympic summer sports and ending with 7 MSF Olympic Winter Sports (it begins, respectively, after the completion of the next cycle of summer and winter Olympic Games). The constantly growing cost of the Olympic Broadcasting Partnership allowed the IOC to significantly increase the financial support for the ISF with every subsequent game.

Other organizations

The organization promotes the participation of its revenues in the programs of various recognized international sports organizations, including the International Paralympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Most often they act in one direction, but there are also contradictions. For example, the disagreement between WADA and the IOC about Russia's accession to the OI-2016 (this will be discussed below).

Sponsors

IOC has a large number of sponsors, who also provide, among other things, additional income for the organization. Among them the most famous are:

• "Coca Cola";
• "Bridgestone";
• General Electric;
• McDonald's;
• "Panasonic";
• Procter & Gamble;
• "Samsung";
• "Toyota";
• "Visa".

Also part of the sponsorship comes from the support of the National Olympic Committees.

Location of the OI-1976

Initially, the following cities claimed to hold OI-1976:

1. Denver, Colorado, USA.

2. Sion, Switzerland.

3. Tampere, Finland.

4. Vancouver, Canada.

Initially, the city of the Games was chosen Denver May 12, 1970. However, the growth of costs and worries about the adverse impact on the environment (a 3-fold deterioration in its condition) led to the fact that on November 7, 1972, the people of the state voted to refuse to host the Games, since otherwise a bond issue of $ 5 million was required Financing by public funds.

Denver officially refused on November 15, and the Committee then offered to host games in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, but they also declined because of the change of government after the election.

Salt Lake City (Utah) in 1972 offered himself as a potential host of the Games after Denver's denial (in the end, as we know, they took the 2002 Games). The International Olympic Committee, still not recovering from Denver's refusal, chose Innsbruck (Austria) to host the 1976 Winter Olympics. Before that, Innsbruck had already hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1964.

Scandal with OI-2002 in Salt Lake City

A scandal broke out on December 10, 1998, when the Swiss member of the organization Mark Hodler, head of the coordinating committee overseeing the 2002 organization, announced that several IOC members had taken bribes. Soon four independent investigations were conducted by different organizations: the IOC, the US Olympic Committee, and the US Department of Justice.

Before the investigation, the leaders of the OSCEL Welch and Johnson resigned. Many other IOC members soon followed. The Ministry of Justice brought charges to the leaders: they demanded to give each of them fifteen years on charges of bribery and fraud. Johnson and Welch were eventually acquitted of all criminal charges in December 2003.

As a result of the investigation, ten members of the IOC were excluded and ten more were subject to different sanctions. This was the first exclusion or imposition of sanctions for corruption for more than a hundred years of the Committee's existence. Although nothing strictly illegal was done, it was suggested that accepting bribes was morally questionable. Strict rules have been adopted for future applications, and the emphasis was on how many IOC members were able to accept applications for games.

Other contradictions

In 2006, according to the report of Governor Nagano (Japan), millions of dollars allocated for the Olympics were spent in the form of "illegal and excessive level of hospitality" for Committee members, including 4.4 million of them for entertainment. After that, a number of members of the Organization were investigated and dismissed.

Many international groups opposed the holding of the Olympics in Beijing, justifying this by the fact that there are a lot of human rights violations in the country. There were a lot of hearings about these claims, but as a result, the organization issued a statement that OI-2008 will be held in Beijing.

In 2010, the International Olympic Committee was awarded a special award. It is awarded to the worst and most "disgusting" corporate organizations around the world.

Before the start of the 2012 Olympic Games, the Committee decided not to hold a minute of silence to honor the memory of 11 Israeli Olympians who were killed in Munich at the Olympics 40 years ago. Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC at the time, said that it would be "inappropriate" to do this, which caused a wide public response.

Doping scandal

In addition, as a result of the famous doping scandal in July 2016, following the results of the World Anti-Doping Association's research, the report of the American scientist and journalist McClaren, as well as the decisions made by the Sports Arbitration Court, the decision of the IOC, the Russian team was almost suspended from the Olympic Games in Rio de - Janeiro. IOC meeting in Lausanne ended with strict conditions for admission of Russians to the Olympics, and athletes were completely eliminated by the whole team, both those who took dope and those who were not involved in all these cases.