oct.09.2009

COPENHAGEN -

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) re-elected IOC President Jacques Rogge by an 88-1 vote today at the close of the 121st Session.

After thanking the IOC members for their continued support, Rogge outlined an ambitious second-term agenda to strengthen and improve the Olympic Movement.

“We have much more to do,” he told his colleagues. Rogge said one of his top priorities is be to implement the recommendations of the recently completed XIII Congress. He also emphasised the importance of the new Youth Olympic Games, which will debut in Singapore in August, followed by the Youth Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 2012.

“We will take this initiative from infancy to maturity and leave a lasting legacy for the world’s youth,” he said. “We will safeguard and strengthen our assets, and improve our framework for sharing revenues.

“We will continue to support National Olympic Committees and the International Federations, and we will defend the autonomy of sport wherever it is threatened.

“We will be staunch allies for athletes. We will continue to lead the fight against doping, and we will establish a new independent monitoring body to combat irregular betting and match fixing.

“We will narrow the gap in sport between the developed and the developing worlds; and between men and women.

“We will redouble our efforts to place sport at the service of mankind — to inspire young and old alike; to give athletes the opportunity to lead by example; and promote the Olympic values of fair play, respect, solidarity and the pursuit of excellence.”

Rogge, who was first elected at the 112th IOC Session in Moscow in 2001, is the eighth IOC President. The IOC has undertaken a series of reforms during his tenure to improve IOC governance and maintain the Games as the world’s premier sporting event.

The changes include a more structured system to routinely review and refresh the Olympic sports programme; improvements in judging and refereeing; an aggressive anti-doping programme; and steps to restrain the size and cost of the Games.

The IOC has quadrupled its financial reserves during Rogge’s term — from $105 million in 2001 to well over $400 million today — while distributing record revenue to International Federations, National Olympic Committees and the Olympic Solidarity programme, which offers financial and training assistance to athletes.

Other initiatives have sought to spread the Olympic values through programmes in the fields of education, culture, women’s advancement, the environment and Sport for All. The IOC adopted the UN’s Millennium Development Goals and the environmental goals of Agenda 21, and forged closer ties with the UN to support the Olympic Truce, development through sport, education, humanitarian aid and health protection around the world.

Rogge has long and varied experience with the Olympic Movement. He competed in the sailing competitions at the Games of the Olympiad in Mexico in 1968, Munich in 1972 and Montreal in 1976. He was also a member of the Belgian national rugby team.

He served as President of the Belgian National Olympic Committee from 1989 to 1992. He became President of the European Olympic Committees in 1989, an IOC member in 1991 and an Executive Board member in 1998.

Rogge, 67, was born in Ghent, Belgium, and is an orthopaedic surgeon by profession. He and his wife, Anne, have two adult children.
Rogge is the first IOC President to serve under terms limits approved by the IOC Executive Board in late 1999. Presidents are restricted to an eight-year term, followed by a single four-year term.