Sports and Politics

Because sport can play such an important part in helping shape the individual and society, a great deal of the IOC's program focuses on protecting and promoting the role of sport and the Olympic Games in today's world. One of the clearest threats to the Olympic movement is the constant pressure to take up political causes. While the IOC is a responsible global organization, it has refrained in its more than 100 years of history from entering political debates or taking political stands that were not universally accepted. Although it respects the rights of individuals and organizations to promote their specific causes, for the IOC to enter the fray would run counter to its primary mission and responsibility: to bring the best athletes from around the world together, despite their differences, to celebrate humanity through the competitive spirit. Aligning the organization with a particular political stance that is not universally accepted threatens the very universal nature of the Olympics that is so important in disseminating the values taught through sport.

The worldwide popularization of sport, in fact, has been one of the greatest achievements of the IOC. The Olympic movement grew from an organization racked by boycotts and divisiveness only 20 years ago to a unified family of 199 national Olympic committees and more than 50 recognized international sports federations. In a short space of time, the framework for developing sport and seeding its ancillary effects has been laid across the world.

One of the great enablers of this achievement is the influx of revenues associated with broadcasting the Olympic Games and sponsoring the Olympic movement's programs. With its growing financial success, the IOC was not only able to provide more than half of the budget needed to host the Olympic Games, but was also able to begin financially supporting the work of national Olympic committees and international federations.

Today, the IOC distributes 92 percent of the revenues it generates to the rest of the Olympic movement across the globe. For instance, a percentage of the television broadcasting revenue directly funds a program called Olympic Solidarity, which seeks to provide training for elite and promising athletes who lack access to world-class training facilities and includes programs to train coaches and administrators. More than 400 Olympic Solidarity athletes qualified for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, and 70 of them won medals. Another portion of the revenues provides for the travel of athletes, coaches, officials, and their equipment to the Games. Through funding programs such as these, the IOC helps more national Olympic committees send athletes to the Games and also enables them to send better-qualified athletes, who in turn make local dreams come true and increase the interest of the young in taking up sport. Programs that generate and distribute the revenue have gone a long way toward sustaining the movement's universality and the development of sport.

To enhance universality, the best way of spreading Olympic values within a country is to allow it to host the Olympic Games. Because of this, the IOC is working toward making the Games easier to organize. While Sydney's near-perfection proved that a modern city can handle the current burden of organizing the Games, we must strive to lighten this burden so that smaller, less developed cities can eventually host them as well.

While the program of Olympic competition is being reviewed to determine whether the right mix of sports constitutes the Olympic Games, the IOC does not want to reduce the number of participants. The current number is manageable, and, after all, the Games are for the athletes. However, the IOC cannot increase the numbers either. For the first time since World War II, the IOC Executive Board rejected all requests for additional events to be added to the Olympic program for Athens.

What the IOC must "right-size," however, is the scope of the task involved in hosting the Games. We need to reduce the list of "nice-to-have" elements that have been deemed to be requirements. For instance, we have to look at the growing demand for newer and greater technology. Surely, the IOC can find greater efficiencies to stem the burgeoning demand for technology, which now accounts for 20 percent of the Games budget.

The IOC has already begun providing knowledge transfer and ready-made solutions, but it needs to expand this assistance. As a result of our knowledge transfer program, the Athens 2004 organizers are benefiting from a newly developed series of seminars and more than 125 manuals on Games organization and management. In terms of ready-made solutions, the IOC aims to provide greater support to organizers, especially those with the most difficult tasks. Years ago, the IOC provided global marketing sponsorship program revenue as a ready-made package to the organizers. Just last year it moved to develop a company that will produce the host broadcast coverage for the rights-holding television companies around the world. This eliminates a major traditional concern of every organizing committee because it dispenses with the need to collect the required expertise under one roof over and over again. The IOC's aim is to continue to look at other innovative solutions like these and to further the capture of knowledge by each successive organizing committee.

Doping Dilemma

Enhancing the universality of sport is essential, but this goal will be made impossible if we do not work to preserve the credibility of athletic competition. The greatest threat to that credibility is doping. The IOC's resolve to tackle this problem must be strong. When the public no longer trusts a result, when fans question their hero, or even worse, when mothers, fearful of the temptation to use drugs, stop encouraging their children to participate in athletic events, we will have lost the most important game.

The fight against doping in sport is a highly complicated affair involving science, law, and ethics. The IOC has been fighting the war on doping for more than 30 years. The campaign has been difficult and its results have been mixed, but the IOC is steadfast in its determination to rid sport of this blight.