International Olympic Committee President Coventry: Reexamine Olympic bid procedures and gender participation standards

Kosty Coventry, who officially took office as president of the International Olympic Committee three days ago, revealed on the 26th that the International Olympic Committee will re-examine the Olympic bid procedures and the qualification standards for women's events.

After taking over Bach, Coventry and IOC members jointly launched in-depth consultations called "Suspending and Thinking" over the past three days. On the 26th, at the first online press conference attended as the chairman, Coventry introduced that the consultation focused on the dimensions of athlete support, Olympic event planning, Olympic sports development, and sports to promote a better world, and reached the above two consensuses.

"My start-up work as the chairman has been completed," said the former Zimbabwean swimming player, "I hope to have a 'good start'."

She introduced: "We have spent a long few days, but it makes great sense. Because we not only held the Executive Committee meeting on the 25th and 26th, but also held a 'pause and thinking' discussion with the members from the 24th. This discussion is crucial for me personally and the Olympics as a whole. We need to use this to examine the status quo, discover opportunities, recognize challenges, and plan future responses."

Coventry shared the two consensuses reached in this consultation with reporters. First, the IOC members agreed to revisit future Olympic bid procedures.

"The main reasons are: First, the committee members want to participate more in this process and truly understand it in depth; second, the question of when to grant the right to host the next Olympics, we hope to learn from the experience of the (longer preparation period) Los Angeles Olympics, Brisbane Olympics in 2028, Brisbane Olympics in 2032, and the 2030 French Alps Winter Olympics, which has a shorter preparation period."

"Based on these two points, we will set up a working group next week to start studying when and how to choose the venue for the future Olympics," Coventry said.

In 2019, the International Olympic Committee headed by Bach decided to form the "Summer Olympic Organizing Committee" and the "Winter Olympic Organizing Committee" respectively. The members were relatively fixed to replace the previous "evaluation committee" and were responsible for directly recommending multiple or single candidate cities to the International Olympic Committee Executive Committee. Although the voting rights for the final decision venue are still in the hands of all IOC members, there may be only one future candidate venue. In this way, although the committee member has the final voting right, his actual decision-making space is limited due to the unique option.

The first female president of the International Olympic Committee also said that the second consensus in this discussion is to protect women's competition events. Regarding the recent controversial issue of transgender athletes, she said: "It is not the majority of the committee members, but all committee members are unanimously supporting the protection of women's competitions. To this end, we will re-examine the qualification standards for women's competitions and set up a working group composed of experts and the International Single Sports Federation."

She pointed out that the International Olympic Committee should play a leading role in this matter, bringing together experts and the International Single Sports Federation to ensure consensus is reached. “There may be differences between sports, but it should be ensured that this matter is advanced in agreement with all stakeholders.”