Coventry Aims to Make IOC Fit for the Future; EB Meets in Milan With 2026 Concerns
Three months after her election, IOC president Kirsty Coventry has wasted no time setting priorities.
“Fit for the Future” is the motto of the moment for IOC members, replacing “Olympic Agenda”, the rubric for the program of reforms laid out by predecessor Thomas Bach for the past 12 years.
Literally hours after her election in June, Coventry and her colleagues brainstormed for a day and a half in private, without IOC executives, on what they want to see change, internally and externally. on what the IOC needs to address now. Coventry has taken the next step by forming four working groups to handle each of the issues drawn from that session in June, Coventry says the goal is consensus on the recommendations each will put forward. Consensus of course needed to win the approval of the 100+ IOC members. It is possible for some proposals to be tabled at the next IOC session next February ahead of the winter Games in Milan.
While seemingly redundant to already established IOC commissions that cover these matters, the working groups are exclusive for IOC members and are smaller in size.
The group on the Youth Olympic Games will be chaired by Danka Hrbeková. The future of this invention launched in 2010 is in the hands of this group. While some members question the need, practice has shown the YOG is an incubator for new Olympic sports.
New Olympic sports are the domain of the Olympic Program panel, led by Karl Stoss who already heads the IOC Program mission. His group will review how sports are chosen for the Olympics with an eye towards transparency. This group includes Seb Coe, one of the candidates in the race for the IOC presidency won by Coventry.
Luis Alberto Moreno is chairing Commercial Partnerships and Marketing. This group will assess the current marketing program of the IOC and whether it is fit for the times. The role of the Olympic Broadcasting Services will also be in the group’d remit.Among the members of this commission are two other candidates who competed with Coventry for the presidency, Johan Eliasch and Juan Antonio Samaranch.
A bit of intrigue for the fourth working group, Protecting the Female Category. No names were disclosed for the chair or membership. or members.he identities of the membership of the fourth working group Protecting the Female Category is being withheld at this time.
“The names of the members of the working group will remain confidential for now to protect the integrity of the group and their work,” says the IOC release.
Executive Board in Milan
With the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina just six months away, the 15 member Executive Board meets September 18 and 19. The EB meeting is timed to follow this week’s latest visit of the 2026 coordination commission so preparations for the Games in February will likely be front and center. The two day EB meeting is the first time for the group in the six years since the Italian bid was chosen.
Commission chair Kristin Kloster, also an EB member, will report to her colleagues in camera. Behind closed doors she could be candid in her concerns for Milan/Cortina. While venues approach readiness, it is their unprecedented span across mountains, time-sucking journeys that will limit the mobility of spectators as well as staff, media and volunteers. The venue choices have been known as a challenge from the start to save cost and complexity. Existing venues were favored regardless of the distance from Cortina or Milan.
In her press conference Wednesday at the end of the cocom meeting Kloster noted that preparations for the Games are entering “a critical phase” with test events, torch relay and other events in rapid fire pace leading up to next February. IOC president Kirsty Coventry, also in Milan, joined Kloster and the Cocom at its final session Wednesday. Coventry will lead the Executive Board in a two day meeting. It’s the first time the EB has met in Milan since being selected at the 2019 IOC session.
Coventry can report on her travels since taking office in June. Her first stop was Singapore in July for the World Aquatics Championships. This month it was Tokyo for the world championships in track and field. Next week she will be in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly for the first time as IOC president.
The question of participation of Russian athletes in 2026 could be up for discussion by the EB but no changes to current IOC sanctions are expected.
Coventry told L’Equipe in a recent interview that no change is in the offing for the existing sanctions against Russia for its war against Ukraine. No athletes can compete under the Russian flag or other national symbols. Members of the military are banned; so are government leaders as well as those of the suspended Russian Olympic Committee. Coventry met last week with leaders of the Ukraine NOC at IOC headquarters in Lausanne.
More Changes for IOC Staff
There is a new Chief of Staff for Coventry. Jan Paterson began work September 15. Most recently involved with sport development in Saudi Arabia, Paterson spent two decades with the British Olympic Association and was a deputy chef de mission for Team GB at the 2012 Games in London. She succeeds Marcus Hausen, who joined the IOC staff when Thomas Bach took office in 2013,
James Pearce is named media advisor for the IOC president. Pearce, a former BBC reporter, he covered the Olympics from 2001 to 2012. He formed a media consultancy in London, assisting Coventry with her campaign for IOC president. He began work in Lausanne on September 1. For now Mark Adams continues as the official spokesman for the IOC into 2025, a post he’s held for nearly 15 years. Retirement awaits in 2026.
(Note of correction: in an earlier edition it was incorrectly reported that the Sept. 19 IOC press conference would be the last to be moderated by Mark Adams. He is expected to host many others before he retires in 2026. The text has been revised.)
Beginning January 1, 2026, Julien Baehni will begin work as Human Resources Director. The IOC says he will transition into the post through the end of June. He will succeed Xavier Tissières. Baehni comes to the IOC from UEFA headquarters in nearby Nyon.
Compiled and written by Ed Hula