Olympic Insider

Copenhagen winners and losers

COPENHAGEN — The marathon that was the International Olympic Committee’s 121st session and XIII congress ground Friday to a close, more than a week after it commenced. (The session is the IOC’s annual assembly, the congress a think tank that takes place perhaps every dozen years. Together in Copenhagen they made for one very long meeting. Why is the session formally referred to with one style of numbers, the congress another? Don’t ask).

Here are the winners and losers:

– Jacques Rogge

Big winner. The IOC president, elected in 2001 to an eight-year term succeeding Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, was re-elected Friday to a second (and final) term of four years. Rogge was the only candidate Friday for the presidency. The vote: 88-1, with three abstentions.

Also Friday, the IOC voted rugby and golf into the 2016 Games, resolving a battle that had dragged on for virtually all of Rogge’s first term over the make-up of the sports on the Olympic program. Last Friday, of course, the IOC selected Rio de Janeiro for 2016, a move that fixes Rogge’s legacy as the president who presided over IOC expansion to China and then to South America. Plus, with Chicago’s defeat, attributable in large measure to dissatisfaction within the IOC with the U.S. Olympic Committee, Rogge now enjoys considerable leverage in dealing with the USOC in a longstanding dispute over broadcast and marketing revenues.

Rogge skillfully played a strong hand in Copenhagen, making it abundantly plain he is in firm control of the IOC. Even Samaranch said so, the former president declaring from the dais, “With your leadership, I think I can say the International Olympic Committee is stronger than ever. Congratulations, president.”

Italy’s Mario Pescante, speaking immediately after being elected an IOC vice president Friday, announced, “It seems to me to be somewhat superfluous to state here my loyalty to President Rogge and to the Olympic family. It’s my whole life …”

The IOC votes by secret ballot. Little birdies would love to know who had the temerity in the presidential balloting to vote no — and, moreover, why three members would travel however far it was to come to an IOC session, where the entire point is to vote, and then take a pass.

The Prince of Orange, a Dutch royal who said he had left the assembly early Thursday and didn’t get the memo that Friday’s start time had been moved up a half hour, to 8:30 a.m., missed the re-election vote entirely. The prince apologized from the floor and declared he assuredly would have voted for Rogge.

The presidential balloting Friday immediately triggered speculation about who might succeed Rogge in 2013. Possibilities, in no particular order: Thomas Bach of Germany, Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico, Jean-Claude Killy of France, Nawal el-Moutawakel of Morocco, Sergei Bubka of the Ukraine, Sebastian Coe of Great Britain, Ser Miang Ng of Singapore.

– USOC

Big, big loser. Chicago got booted in the first round, exposing the USOC’s fundamental weaknesses. The only certainty for the near future for the USOC is profound uncertainty.

Chicago got a mere 18 votes despite President Obama’s personal appeal here in Copenhagen, an appearance that came precisely one week before the president was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Which, in its way, is precisely what the IOC says it’s all about — yet, to reiterate, only 18 votes went Chicago’s way. Could anything underscore more the dismal regard within the IOC for the USOC?

– Rio de Janeiro

Winner. Big time. When you win 66-32 in an IOC bid-city election, that’s emphatic.

– Vancouver

Winner. It’s next up in the spotlight, the Winter Games beginning next February, and organizers came to Copenhagen to say their venues are ready and they believe their budget will be balanced despite the global economic downturn. Bring on the red Hudson’s Bay souvenir mittens, the Vancouver version of the Salt Lake City blue Roots beret.

– Rugby

Winner. The vote Friday admitting seven-a-side rugby to the 2016 and 2020 Games, the 2020 entry subject to review in 2017, capped one of the most skillful and sophisticated campaigns ever mounted within IOC circles. It would hardly be a surprise if sooner than later the International Rugby Board president, Bernard Lapasset, is himself made an IOC member.

The vote to include rugby: 81-8, with one abstention.

The rugby tournament at the Olympics will feature 12 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams, with 12 athletes on each team. “Rugby and Rio were made for each other,” Mike Miller, the IRB’s secretary general, said.

– Golf

Winner. It’s not so much about Ernie Els and Tiger Woods as it is other parts of the package, and in particular women’s golf. At the Summer Games, golf will feature 60 women and 60 men, both tourneys promising to offer medal opportunities to athletes from nations that traditionally are not high in the medals counts.

“With your support,” Michelle Wie told the IOC before the vote, speaking from the lectern and recounting how she had started playing golf at age 4, “I can dream about being an Olympian …

“I can dream of doing something that not even Tiger or even Ernie has ever done, and that is to make the final putt to win an Olympic gold medal. If this dream comes true, somewhere in the world there will be another 4-year old girl who will … perhaps start her own Olympic dream.”

Woods, speaking in a video taped this week at the Presidents Cup event in San Francisco, professed that “decency and fairness” were hallmarks of both golf and the Olympics and “respectfully” asked the IOC for favorable consideration.

The vote: 63-27, with two abstentions.

“We’re not concentrating on 27 votes,” Ty Votaw, executive director of the International Golf Federation, said afterward. “We’re just happy with the 60-plus,” he said. He flashed a smile of relief and gratitude and pronounced that majority “enlightened individuals” even as he vowed to keep working with any and all dissenters — the dissent perhaps a product more of the process by which golf was presented to the members rather than a reflection of the sport itself. Demographically speaking, after all, golf and the IOC were made for each other.

For golf’s leaders, the profound significance of the vote Friday goes well beyond the Games; it affords an unmatched opportunity to grow the game in China and in other developing nations. Olympic sports typically are eligible in many countries for government funding.

As with the case of rugby, golf was admitted for 2016 and 2020, the place on the 2020 program subject to review in 2017.

– Baseball and softball

Losers. Rugby and golf in, baseball and softball out for 2012 and 2016.

But wait. Don’t be surprised to see both baseball and softball on display in Rio in 2016. Not on the formal Olympic program but — just wait and see.

In a potentially related development, the backstage churn that makes the IOC a political scientist’s dream is already rich with possibilities for 2020. After the 2012 London Summer Games, the IOC program goes from 26 “core” sports to 25. Taekwondo would appear to be most at risk. Why? To begin, it is even now undergoing yet another internal leadership battle, and the sequence and style of those campaigns has not played well within Olympic circles. Also, there are other combat sports on the program, including boxing and judo. Moreover, taekwondo’s 2009 world championships take place next week, here in Copenhagen; there’s almost no hint anywhere in the city that the event is forthcoming. It’s now four years to a decision but the query can already be heard: Can taekwondo keep justifying its place on the Olympic program?

Let’s say a spot would open for 2020. A proposal: Baseball and softball take a lesson from golf, rugby, wrestling and boxing, and become one sport with men’s and women’s disciplines. Call that entry “diamond sports.” Softball, meanwhile, undergoes a related re-branding, and goes by “fast-pitch” (the name “softball” is, believe it or not, a drag on its standing). “Fast-pitch” stays in the public eye by staging a “World Classic” at Yankee Stadium featuring the United States, China, Australia and Japan. Who could resist?

Harvey Schiller, the U.S. president of the International Baseball Federation, wrote in a blog posted Thursday, in yet another expression of dissatisfaction this week with USOC leadership, “I’ve been asked many times if these leaders supported Baseball’s return to the 2016 games. The answer is NO!”

– Craig Reedie

Winner. The British IOC member was elected Friday to the IOC’s policy-making executive board for a four-year term, becoming the first Briton on the board since 1961, only the third Briton ever in IOC history — remarkable given the key British role in the development of modern sport. Reedie played a leading role in ensuring London’s 2012 Games win in 2005. Now he gets to serve on the IOC board for the years leading up to the London Games.

Along with Pescante, Ng was elected an IOC vice president. That figured, because Singapore will be staging the first Youth Olympic Games in 2010.

Also elected to the 15-member executive board: John Coates of Australia.

– Mike Lee

Winner. The resume of the British strategist now shows that he helped direct London’s winning 2012 bid, Rio’s winning 2016 bid and rugby’s winning campaign.

Again, for emphasis: 66 votes for Rio, 81 for rugby.

– Denmark

Winner. The nation’s crown prince, Frederik, was elected an IOC member on Friday; as of the close of the 2009 session, the IOC membership roll totals 112. Frederik’s approval was cause for such rejoicing within the Danish press corps that a huge shout of joy went out upon the announcement.

– Mohamed Mzali

Loser, and the staggering thing is that in the 21st century the IOC is still dealing with this kind of regressive thinking, even if infrequently, because the environment apparently remains susceptible to such sentiment being voiced out loud: “You may accuse me of [being] old-fashioned,” the 83-year-old Mzalli, an IOC member from Tunisia since 1965, the former prime minister of his country, said Friday from the floor as the IOC assembly wound to a close.

“I have difficulty imagining young women, good figures, who are going to be victims of punches and who will have black eyes, who will maybe bleed, who will receive maybe hard knocks on their breasts, which are meant to feed babies. I would hate to see women hurt and maybe faint in the ring. But I will vote in favor of the decision taken by the executive board,” he said, referring to the board’s previously announced move to add women’s boxing to the Olympic program beginning in 2012.

Anita DeFrantz, the senior IOC member to the United States and chair of the IOC’s “Women and Sport” commission, responded a few moments later from the floor, “Unfortunately, that approach to women’s desire to take part in sport … has been troublesome for so long.”

2 Responses to “Copenhagen winners and losers”

  1. George John Nick Says:

    As usual, Alan’s article is very well informed. I beg to differ slightly on one point: actually Rogge is a winner but also a looser as well.

    He lost the single chance that the IOC would ever had to get a willing US President to work with as partners. It would have made no difference if the Games would go to Rio in 2020 and get a US President as an ally in the process. Especially since Brazil will get to host the world at 2014.

    Still it is President Rogge’s prerogative to choose Rio over Chicago, but couldn’t this been done in more tactful way, avoiding an unnecessary embarrassment for the U.S. President?

    It is a bit strange to go first to Sochi and then to Rio - both risky propositions, but this is not the issue at this discussion. The big question is: why hasn’t the IOC President signaled to the White House that the IOC wouldn’t grant the Games to Chicago no matter what, thus avoiding this unnecessary act of snobbery towards the US President?

    Snobbery towards not any President, but this US President who has committed to work with the world community and just today was awarded the Nobel Prize.

    In the end of the day, here is what we learned in the past two years about the IOC: the IOC is willing to deal with communist China, do business with Vladimir Putin granting the Games to Sochi - a profoundly problematic bid at 2007 - but not is not willing to accept Obama’s invitation. And it is doing so in a gravely undiplomatic way. It was a startling development.

    We are about to leave Copenhagen but I am betting as the President will arrive to Vidy he must not be feeling very much like a winner.

    PS. I don’t think that in the future we will see world leaders coming to support their country’s bids. Definitely not from the US. No country leader will ever take such a risk. If the IOC’s aim was to diminish the importance of the bidding process in world politics, well then it has done a fantastic job!

  2. Tracker32 Says:

    Alan:

    For your list of potential Executive Directors for the USOC what about including someone who is an Olympian and who has been actively engaged in representing the Olympians in the U.S.?

    This person is also fluent in English and Japanese and has a J.D. from the UCLA Law School.

    Former long-time world-record-holder in the Triple Jump and current President of the United States Olympians Willie Banks.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

 

Copyright © 2008 Universal Sports