IOC unanimously approves Olympic Agenda 2020+5 reform package

Berlin (dpa) – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday approved Olympic Agenda 2020+5, a second set of recommendations to make the Olympic Movement fit for the future.

A virtual IOC Session unanimously nodded off the 15 recommendations which are to make the IOC more digital and embrace esports, reinforce athletes rights and responsibilities, boost clean sports, make the Games more sustainable and strengthen their uniqueness.

Olympic Agenda is the brainchild of IOC president Thomas Bach, and its first part, Olympic Agenda 2020, was introduced in 2014 and was to make the Games more sustainable as well as them and bidding cheaper.

Bach said on Friday that the additional recommendations are to make the IOC ready for the post-coronavirus world.

“We must prepare ourselves for this new world. We need a vision of how this new world will look like, and for this reason we launched a worldwide discussion to start such a vision,” Bach said.

It still remains to be seen whether athletes will in the future have greater commercial opportunities and also more rights to express themselves at the Games.

Podium protests such as from Tommie Smith and John Carlos in 1968 against racism are outlawed by Rule 50 which is now challenged by many in connection with the Black Lives Matter Pretests, and sports federations allowing protests at their events.

IOC athletes commission chair Kirsty Coventry said they have talked with 3,500 athletes from 185 countries and that they are in the process of putting the feedback together.

“It has been a very big consultation process. We would like the process to continue,” Coventry said, adding it was important “not only to hear the voices of a few, but to all athletes from all regions.”