Congress mulls over how to make Olympic Movement fit for the future (Feature)

By John Bagratuni Sep 24, 2009, 5:04 GMT

   Hamburg - Overweight kids playing video games is bad news for the Olympic Movement which aims to bring back youngsters to sports in one effort to make the Olympics fit for the future.

   International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge has convened the 13th edition of the Olympic Congress which takes place October 3-5 in Copenhagen in order to achieve this.

   Under the theme 'The Role of the Olympic Movement in Society,' the 2009 Congress brings together more than 1,000 delegates from the IOC, sports federations, national Olympic committees and others.

The agenda is made up of five themes: the athletes, the Olympic Games, the structure of the Olympic movement, Olympism and youth and the digital revolution.

   'I think the most debated theme will be what does it take to keep the Games as the premier event,' Rogge said in an interview with German Press Agency dpa.

   'A second major theme ... will be Olympism and youth. Is competitive sports still appealing to youth? How can we bring young people to sports clubs? how can we combat the small screens and the video games and things like that. How can we combat inactivity and obesity.'

   The Youth Olympics, Rogge's brainchild, is one factor to make sports and the Olympics appealing again for youngsters, with the first edition set for 2010 in Singapore.

   However, the computer and internet age also offers new ways of income for the IOC as the classic sale of broadcast rights to TV networks is nearing its end.

   'Are we still going to work with a rights holder who is a gate keeper and gets all the rights? Or are we going to segment and cut and say 'you get mobile and video rights, you get internet and you get classical broadcasting,'' said Rogge.

   The congress will hear around 350 proposals from the Olympic Movement and more than 1,000 from the public which was asked to join the debate via a 'virtual Olympic Congress' on the internet.

   As the congress has only a consulting rule, any decisions must be brought to the IOC executive board, or the IOC Session if the Olympic charter is concerned.

   Rogge expects first decisions at the February session ahead of the winter Games in Vancouver, but the bulk of them 2011 in Durban.

   The Olympic congress was first held in 1894 to revive the Games. There were eight further editions until 1930, but then a 43-year break until 1973 when the amateur rule was abolished. The Copenhagen congress comes 15 years after the centennial edition 1994 in Paris.