In Kuala Lumpur, the calm after the storm

Kuala Lumpur, August 1, 2015: The days go by but do not always resemble the IOC. Friday, July 31, the standoff between Beijing and Almaty to host the Winter Games in 2022 had given the 128th session, the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, an international resonance. Saturday 1 August, the Olympic institution has regained a more family atmosphere and tempo. Chinese media, a hundred journalists left the press center. Kazakhs, far less numerous, have also packed up. Morning After for one, hangover for others.

A calm day, then. A soporific anything even. But a little digging, not entirely devoid of interest. To prove these few information, news and heard here and there decisions at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

– The IOC appointed by vote, early afternoon, the members of his Ethics Commission. A procedure allowing to elect Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant Geert Corstens, Francisco J. Elizalde, Robin E. Mitchell, Patricia O’Brien, Samuel Schmid and Yang Yang. The President will be the Senegalese Youssoupha Ndiaye magistrate. His vice-president, the French Guy Canivet, member of the Constitutional Council.

Comment by Mark Adams, head of the IOC’s communication: “If we judge by the respective CVs of some of its members, it can be concluded that the Ethics Commission will be truly independent. “

– The IOC still does not know the crisis. It seems even protected for a while any threat of recession. Reported its financial report at 31 December 2014, the tidy sum of 1,828 billion in revenues. In the column expenses, 1, 703 billion dollars. Difference: $ 125 million. Comment by Mark Adams: “We distribute the sports movement 90% of our revenues. “

– The entry of new sports in the Summer Games program in 2020 may not exceed a total of 500 additional athletes, said John Coates, President of the Coordination Commission for the Tokyo Games. And many little at a time. A quota that, according to preliminary calculations, should not afford to let more than one or two sports to get a place at the Games. Assuming that the Japanese would choose baseball / softball, only one other discipline would retain a chance of reaching the Olympic nirvana. Yet they are eight international federations to prepare for their oral exam before the Japanese organizers, August 8 and 9 in Tokyo.

– Australia always think to enter the race at the Summer Games in 2028. But it has reduced the list of possible choices to a single unit: Brisbane. Melbourne and Sydney would be out of it, said John Coates. Concerned, an IOC regulation binding the Games organizers to put their event in July or August. “At this time of year, it’s too fresh in Melbourne as in Sydney, said John Coates. It only remains for us that Brisbane and Queensland to try our luck. “

– The report of the Rio Games Coordination Commission did not generate any question from members of the IOC. Silence on the line. Not a single voice was raised to raise the issue of water in the bay, though presented by the Associated Press as a sour broth of bacteria.
Finally, a very quiet day in the world of Olympism.