International Olympic Committee president initiates reforms to regain control of Olympics

The International Olympic Committee is set to approve a wide-ranging reform programme initiated by new president Kirsty Coventry, who has had a not always easy first year on the job.
The IOC will meet for an extraordinary session on Wednesday and Thursday with the programme Fit for the Future (F4F) top of the agenda.
Coventry wants to end the Olympics’ expansion and instead come up with a more sustainable format for the future, with the two-day session at the IOC’s Swiss headquarters in Lausanne to lay the foundations.
Naming the Games “our biggest asset”, Coventry has said that they “can’t continue growing indefinitely, bigger, bigger, bigger” and that the reform process would include some “uncomfortable” measures.
Disciplines instead of sports
A main part of the F4F agenda is a shift from evaluating the Olympic programme by sports to a future format by discipline.
Based on this, Nordic skiing’s Nordic combined and snowboard’s parallel giant slalom could face the axe in winter, and athletics’ race walking could be hit in summer along with equestrian events and modern pentathlon.
The idea behind the moves is that globally attractive events with a broad participation field would have a better chance to be included than niche events in various sports, especially if they require costly venues.
Coventry has set up a number of working groups in the F4F scheme with the aim to implement it from the 2032 Games in Brisbane.
“We feel we need to regain the control of the programme. We are the leaders. This is our product,” she has said in reference to the IOC and the programme.

Rocky start at times
Coventry has been in office for one year in succession of Thomas Bach and the Olympic swimming champion wants to return the focus onto the core business of sport rather than diplomacy.
It has not been plain sailing for the Zimbabwean as she is also confronted with a growing prize money debate for athletes and new gender regulations that bar trans athletes from women’s events also did not receive unanimous approval.
She did not look good in the debate around excluded Ukrainian skeleton slider Vladyslav Heraskevych at the Milan/Cortina Games in February, where she also had to admit that she was not briefed on certain issues.
Prize money
The prize money debate started when World Athletics became the first sports federation to reward its athletes at the Paris 2024 Games and the recent controversial Enhanced Games, where athletes were allowed to dope and got big prize money, have further fuelled it.
“I have always said that I don’t believe in paying athletes prize money at Olympic Games, as this would only benefit a small number of athletes,” Coventry said recently.
“I do believe that our role as the IOC is to find ways to directly support a large number of athletes on their journey towards becoming Olympians, at the Olympics and as they transition to life after sport.”
The IOC has said in the past that athletes profit from substantial payments by the IOC to national Olympic committees and the international sports federations.
However, former South African swimmer Roland Schoeman was among the critics when he said: “The IOC is enthusiastic about the idea of Olympic values – as long as athletes are the only ones expected to make financial sacrifices.”
Not the finish line
In other areas, the planned esports Olympics have been shelved again and the Youth Olympics face an uncertain future beyond 2028.
The two-day session in Lausanne is to set the tone for the remaining seven years of Coventry’s term.
“This will not be the finish line but an important moment to set the direction of the organisation,” the IOC said.