GAMES

September 10 - A mood of resigned acceptance hung over the defeated candidates as they offered their congratulations to Germany's Thomas Bach following his election as the ninth International Olympic Committee (IOC) President here today.

After leading the way in the first round of voting with 43 votes, Bach's victory was confirmed with 49 out of 93 total votes in the second round as he finished ahead of Puerto Rico's Richard Carrion.

Although Bach had been the favourite from the start of the application process earlier this year his triumph was not considered absolutely inevitable and his rivals had begun the day with plenty of confidence.

"I am disappointed as I thought I had a realistic chance," admitted runner-up Carrion.

"But I am not sorry because I gave it my best and it was just not good enough.

"I knew it would have to go a few rounds if I was to win - that was my plan.

"Yet it was the choice of the session, which is supreme and we are now united all behind him and will do what we can for the benefit of the Olympic Movement."

Carrion then showed his lighter side despite his defeat when he was asked if he had "enjoyed " the campaigning process.

"Enjoyed is not a word which comes to mind at this point," he chuckled.

"I would have enjoyed it a little more if I had won the gold medal and I will have to go on a diet now after all those campaigning dinners in the build-up."

Carrion's insistence that everybody would unite behind President Bach was repeated by Taiwan's CK Wu, the candidate defeated in the first round of the election.

Wu admitted that "every time after an election there will be some division and differences of opinion."

Yet he insisted that now the election had been completed "everyone will come back together and work for the benefit of the Olympic Movement."

Similar sentiments were also offered by Ukraine's Sergey Bubka, who finished last in the final round of voting after placing third in the opening round.

"I congratulate Bach and wish him good luck and I look forward to working together with him," he said.

"I had an ambition and I presented my vision and ideas.

"But I am very happy and It was very helpful for the future.

"I have head a great time and have gained many unforgettable experiences."

Sergey Bubka was another to be disappointed after finishing in fifth place in the final round of the Presidential raceSergey Bubka was disappointed but also happy to have had "unforgettable experiences" after finishing in fifth place in the final round of the Presidential race

Ireland's Patrick Hickey, President of the European Olympic Committees and a close ally of Bach's described feeling "thrilled" at the result.

He added that Bach will be a "great leader" who is "exactly what the IOC needs at the moment."

Panama's Meliton Sanchez Rivas explained similarly how after "devoting his life to sport in Germany and all over the world as well as the Olympic Movement", Bach is the right man for the job.

"The IOC is such a complicated Movement which is so much more than just a Games, so it is important to maintain a balance and Bach does this better than anyone else," he added.

Bach's status as a former fencer and Olympic champion who another factor that may have swayed several voters and Cuba's volleyball player cum member Yumilka Ruíz Luaces was one of those expressing delight that a fellow former athlete had emerged triumphant.

Thomas Bach being congratulated by IOC members following his popular victoryThomas Bach being congratulated by IOC members following his popular victory





The final word of the day, however, went to one of Bach's staunchest supporters in Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah.

The Sheikh, President of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), said that he was "very happy to see a new President elected in such a democratic way", even though his support of Bach throughout the campaign caused controversy with some IOC members.

"It is good for stability and for him to get the support of such a large part of the house," he said.

"You never know what is going to happen in an election and I believe that the IOC made the right decision."

"It has been a good week for everyone who has supported Tokyo, wrestling and Bach."

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September 9 - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) now expects the sum raised from broadcasting rights for the Olympic cycle encompassing the Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 Games to top $4.1 billion (£2.6 billion/€3.1 billion), Timo Lumme, the television and marketing director, told members today.

This figure compares with a final total of $3.85 billion (£2.45 billion/€2.91 billion) for the Vancouver 2010-London 2012 Olympic cycle, and demonstrates the Movement's resilience in the face of the economic and financial problems that have been afflicting much of the world.

It also, however, represents a marked slowdown from the near 50 per cent rate of growth achieved from this key revenue source in 2009-2012, when set against 2005-2008.

As such, it probably presages a future slowdown in the rate of growth of distributions to other branches of the Olympic Movement.

Instead, the main engine of growth for the Movement in the present Olympic quadrennium looks set to be local marketing revenues, which go towards financing the organisational costs of the specific edition of the Games to which they relate.

A handful of 2013-2016 broadcasting deals have still to be agreed, with outstanding territories including the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and, insofar as Rio 2016 alone is concerned, Australia.

Lumme told the IOC that discussions were under way in all outstanding regions.

Turning to London 2012, Lumme described the Games as "a significant moment in Olympic broadcast history".

He added: "The London Games demonstrated clearly that viewers no longer consume the Games on television alone."

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September 9 - Denis Oswald has received a slap over the wrist for publicly criticising fellow International Olympic Committee (IOC) Presidential candidate Thomas Bach on the eve of the election here tomorrow.

The IOC Ethics Commission reminded Oswald of the rules of conduct after he had appeared on Swiss radio and hit out at the help Bach's campaign is receiving from Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, President of the Association of National Olympic Committees.

Oswald told radio stations RTS that some IOC members had concerns about the alliance the two have formed.

"It is up to the members to make their choice," said the 66-year-old Oswald, who is considered the outsider in the six-man race to replace Jacques Rogge.

"Certain of them are annoyed by the agreements that have been struck between Kuwait and Bach...and also the pressure being brought to bear by the German political authorities, which one cannot ignore.

"Certain members believe that it is not really very democratic and that could have an opposite effect on Bach's election chances.

"I am no longer the age where I believe in Father Christmas."

Oswald was asked whether he planned to withdraw from the campaign.

"Certainly not in the case of Thomas Bach!" he told RTS.

"I don't believe he and I share the same values!

"What I hear...is he is implicated in commercial affairs.

"He uses his position to his benefit so that he can gain contracts for the companies he represents."

Bach, 59, claimed that he had not heard the remarks.

Earlier Bach had found himself the focus of old allegations made in a German television documentary and repeated in the British media about his time as a fencer - he was a member of the German team that won the Olympic gold medal at Montreal in 1976 - and working for Adidas.

A spokesman claimed the accusations were "nonsense".

Oswald later apologised for his remarks about Bach.

"Mr Oswald admitted that he said more than he had intended to and expressed his regrets to the IOC," a spokeswoman said.

Bach remains the frontrunner to be elected tomorrow with his closest challengers expected to be Singapore's Ser Miang Ng and Puerto Rico's Richard Carrion with Ukraine's Sergey Bubka and Taiwan's C K Wu also standing.

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As Jacques Rogge steps away from the position as President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which he has held since 2001, there is a certain irony in the circumstances.

In 1894, two years before the first of the modern Olympics took place in Athens, the man credited with their instigation, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was still struggling to kindle public enthusiasm for the idea. He raised the topic once again at the Congress of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques, at which the bulk of debate centred upon what constituted amateur sport, with one of the key topics being that of betting.

In March 2011 Rogge addressed the very same question, describing reports of illegal betting within sumo wrestling as "another frightening example", and adding: "There have been documented cases of cheating and match-fixing in sumo wrestling in Japan. There has been recently a very visible case in cricket. There is no safe haven in the world where nothing happens."

Rogge was speaking to the press after a meeting that had drawn a group of highly influential figures to the IOC's headquarters on the shore of Lake Geneva in Lausanne. Those present included Ministers from the British, Australian, French and Swiss Governments, and representatives from international organisations including the United Nations and Interpol.

Eleven years earlier there had been a similar meeting of minds in Lausanne as Governments and assorted agencies had come together to consider how best to coordinate efforts to eradicate doping from sport, a meeting which was a precursor to the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

It was the overriding concern of the sport at the time, as Rogge made memorably clear with his address to the Olympic sportsmen and women of the world on the subject of how they should behave: "Athletes, you are role models, and your achievements both on and off the field of play will inspire and motivate future generations. Please compete in sport in a spirit of fair play, mutual understanding and respect, and above all, please refuse doping."

But now there was a new - and old - topic on the agenda: betting. "I think that sport is in danger," Rogge concluded. "It's not about the Olympic Games; it's about sport in general."

Rogge's term at the head of the IOC has been a relatively modest 12 years, well behind those of Henri de Baillet-Latour (1925-1942), Avery Brundage (1952-1972), Juan Antonio Samaranch (1980-2001) and the man credited with the effective creation of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who held his post from 1896 - when he took over from the Greek who was the first President during the Athens Olympics, Demetrius Vikelas - until 1925.

During those dozen years, this 71-year-old surgeon and former Olympic sailor from Belgium has endeavoured to put issues, rather than himself, at the centre of the Movement. First it was doping at the top of the agenda, then betting; but never Rogge. There will not be the remotest risk that this President will perform a 180-degrees turn and insist on an extra term of office, as his predecessor Samaranch - or His Excellency, as he preferred to be addressed - did.

The Spaniard presided over the transformation of the Games from its impecunious state in the wake of the ruinously expensive 1976 Montreal Olympics - ruinous not just for that city, but for the image of the Games as an object of desire for other bidders. The formation of a global sponsoring system and the negotiation of lucrative television rights deals effectively recreated the modern Games. Without Samaranch's direction, the Olympics would not have reached the financially secure position in which they currently find themselves, with reported reserves of more than $500 million £320 million/€380 million).

But the downside of the Samaranch years was the suspicion of corruption, and then - in the wake of the Salt Lake City bid for the 2002 Winter Games - the proof of widespread corruption. Before Samaranch took up his position in 1980, IOC members had to fund their own travel to bidding cities. Soon there were first-class tickets and lavish hotel rooms for the travelling members of the self-appointed club. Under Samaranch, everybody got an upgrade.

It was during the Spaniard's time, too, that the problem of doping within the Olympics emerged to public prominence, with the banning of Ben Johnson in the wake of his world record 100 metres victory at the 1988 Seoul Games. Samaranch pointed out with some justice at the time that this piece of bad news was really good news in that it showed genuine resolve within the Movement to pursue doping cheats. But doubts remained over how genuine and widespread that resolve was.

When Rogge took over the top job, his first, and perhaps defining distinction was to become the first IOC President to stay in the Olympic Village, along with all the athletes, during a Games - as he did in Salt Lake in 2002. It was an approach with which he effectively book-ended his Presidential career, as he conspicuously refused the chauffeur-driven cars on offer at the London 2012 Games, preferring to travel by public transport. The message was clear - athletes are at the centre of the Olympics.

Under Rogge's direction there have been a series of healthy reforms and additions to the Olympic Movement. The conditions which encouraged the corruption around bidding cities have been revised, with travel now being undertaken by a relatively small group of IOC members.

The Youth Olympic Games were launched in 2010. The Olympics have been awarded to South America for the first time following Rio's successful bid for the 2016 Games. Towards the end of his term, Rogge has confronted countries excluding women from the Olympics. And there has also been a very conscious effort to ensure that cities will not have to be gigantic economic powerhouses to be able to host the Games in future. "I'm known within the IOC as Mr No," Rogge said. "Because there are many requests for more athletes, more sports, more this and more that. And I say, 'No.'"

Naturally, Rogge's progress over the last dozen years has not been entirely smooth. After announcing in July 2008 that foreign media would, "for the first time", be able to report and publish freely from China during the Beijing Olympics, he had the embarrassment of having to acknowledge that those initial assurances from the host nation had not been insisted upon.

During those Beijing Games, the breast-beating of Usain Bolt in the final 15metres of his world record 100m victory and his subsequent celebrations provoked Rogge to comment that this behaviour was "not the way we perceive being a champion". He harked back to his initial call upon athletes to compete in a spirit of respect, adding that Bolt "should show more respect for his competitors". Rogge later clarified his position, saying: "Maybe there was a little bit of misunderstanding. What he does before or after the race I have no problem with. I just thought that his gesticulation during the race was maybe a little disrespectful."

Before the London 2012 Olympics, Rogge took the difficult decision to turn down calls for a minute of silence to commemorate the Israeli victims of the Palestinian group Black September on the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Munich Games. The IOC instead held smaller ceremonies in London and at the German airbase where most of the athletes met their deaths.

This year there has been another highly controversial difficulty following the passing of the law in Russia which makes illegal the open promotion of gay rights, a piece of litigation which has generated criticism from around the world - although not all around the world, given that some countries either maintain a death sentence for homosexual activity or deny that any of their citizens are that way inclined.

Amid calls for next year's Sochi Winter Olympics to be boycotted, Rogge has fallen back on the statement that the IOC are still awaiting "full clarification" over the law. In the meantime, the Russian authorities have tried to assure the IOC and wider world that the new law will not affect any of those arriving to watch or participate in next year's Games. It is still an unhappy and uneasy situation.

In the broadest terms, Rogge's end-of-year address in 2012, which maintained that the Olympic Movement was "stronger than ever" as it neared the end of its 118th year of existence, served effectively as his own statement of values.

He praised the London 2012 Games for its legacy planning, for advancing the cause of environmental sustainability, for embracing social media and for setting new records in participation by women, adding: "The Games were definitely an Athlete's Games by putting the athletes at the heart of the event, showing us outstanding performances which will inspire the next generation."

Rogge noted that London's recently concluded Olympics had involved 156 competitors who had taken part in the initial Youth Olympic Games in Singapore two years earlier, adding that he was sure the Sochi 2014 would contain competitors who had taken part in the initial Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck earlier in 2012.

And he returned to the two keynote issues of his Presidential term: "In keeping with the IOC's zero tolerance policy, the London Games featured the most extensive anti-doping testing programme in Olympic history. In another initiative to protect the integrity of sport, we expanded our cooperation with law enforcement agencies and other partners to guard against illegal and irregular betting."

The ministers at the Lausanne gathering in 2011 were reportedly "shocked" to hear from Rogge that the previous year's figure for illegal betting was an estimated $140 billion (£89 billion/€106 billion). In confirming this figure at the subsequent press conference, Rogge, with a grim smile, described it as "a budget much higher than that of many developing nations", adding: "This is a big problem in the entire world. There is illegal betting where there is broadband internet."

Rogge added that betting patterns were clearly established to avoid detection as much as possible. "We know there are people betting in other continents on European second league divisions," he said. "There are bets being taken on fourth division matches in certain leagues, so that shows you the problem. It's for the most popular sports - definitely, yes. But in the popular sports it's not necessarily in the first league or the top teams, it's mostly as we see second division, third division, because of the small exposure to cameras, to supervision, fewer spectators.

"So if something strange happens it's not going to be seen in highlights for the whole week as would happen with the top match in some professional team sports."

Rogge called on Governments around the world to clamp down on illegal betting and illegal bookmakers. "We need their support, they alone have the judicial powers, they can tap telephone calls, they can issue warrants, they can search baggage - we cannot do that," he said. "There is a far bigger danger to the total credibility of sport because these are Mafia people and they bet at the same time as manipulating the result of a match," he explained.

In concluding his December 2012 address, Rogge described all the milestones and events mentioned as "a testament to the values and priorities of the modern Olympic Movement", adding: "We have accomplished a lot together, but we have much more to do in the year ahead – and I am looking forward to the task."

Now that year is almost over, and the tasks stretch on beyond the range of Jacques Rogge.

There is now in place an increasingly well established operation to combat doping - with the recent suspension of the testing laboratory in Rio de Janeiro ahead of the 2016 Games offering evidence that getting things right in this area will be prioritised ahead of the risk of causing political embarrassment.

As for the illegal betting issue, the IOC will continue to work with Interpol and other Government agencies to preclude it.

And Rogge's successor can take over the management with the knowledge that there is a better framework established than there has ever been to encourage aspiration within the Olympic Movement - whether it be from bidding cities in emerging nations, or from emerging athletes both male and female.

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September 9 - The International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s TOP worldwide sponsorship programme is set to generate a record $1 billion (£636 million/€755 million)-plus in the 2013-2016 quadrennium, with the prospect of more deals still to come.

Timo Lumme, the IOC's television and marketing director, told insidethegames that, with some five months to go before the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, the running total for the current TOP programme was over $1 billion (£636 million/€755 million) in cash and value-in-kind, with 10 partners having signed up.

Lumme also disclosed that the IOC was actively working on two further partnerships.

These could, in the most favourable circumstances, take TOP revenues for the Sochi 2014-Rio 2016 Olympic quadrennium to within range of $1.2 billion (£763 million/€908 million), compared with $950 million (£604 million/€717 million) in 2009-2012.

Such an advance would be welcome at a time when the rate of growth in IOC broadcasting revenues has slowed markedly in relation to the big jump achieved in 2014-2016.

One of the possible new deals is likely to be in the computing/information technology area, and looks set to cover Rio 2016 only.

With technology converging at a rapid rate, the parameters of such a deal would probably be broader than past TOP programme computer agreements, however.

"I think the days of having a stand-alone computer category are probably gone," Lumme said.

He also explained that Samsung, the IOC's TOP partner in the wireless communications category, had signed a local extension covering laptops and PCs for the Sochi Games.

For Rio 2016, Lumme said, "everything is still possible".

The 10 TOP sponsors already signed up for 2014-2016 are Atos, Coca-Cola, Dow, GE, McDonald's, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung and Visa.

The programme has grown enormously since it began by generating $96 million (£61 million/€72 million) for the IOC in the 1985-1988 quadrennium.

In recent years, however, this explosive initial growth has inevitably slowed.

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