30 October 2024 – IOC President Thomas Bach addressed the ANOC General Assembly on its opening day in Cascais, Portugal, on Wednesday. He praised the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and the collaboration with the Organising Committee in implementing the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020, and highlighted the great efforts by Olympic Solidarity to “level the playing field”. He also looked to the future, urging the ANOC delegates to seize the opportunities offered by new technology and particularly artificial intelligence; and he thanked the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) present and told them that the organisation would always have a special place in his heart.

Olympic Games Paris 2024

On the subject of this summer’s Olympic Games, President Bach said that they had come at a difficult time for the world, and had been able to show a great example to the world of the unity of humanity, particularly with the participation of athletes from the territories of all 206 NOCs and the Refugee Olympic Team.

“This was the message the world was looking for in a very dangerous geopolitical situation with all the tension, conflicts, aggression and wars we have to face in our world. In this context the Olympic Games and we in the Olympic Movement are the only ones who manage in these difficult times to bring the world together in a peaceful competition.”

He also noted the outstanding work with the Paris 2024 Organising Committee: “This was only possible thanks to the outstanding work of the Organising Committee under the great leadership of Tony Estanguet. This Organising Committee worked very closely and seamlessly with our teams at the IOC from the very beginning. From the conceptual phase it was always fully aligned with our Olympic Agenda reforms; Games that are younger, more urban, more inclusive and sustainable.”

The unifying and peace message of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 resonated around the world, as evidenced by the fact that they were followed by more than half of the world’s population.

Olympic Solidarity

President Bach outlined the success of Olympic Solidarity’s support to level the playing field for Olympic sport, with 91 NOCs winning medals, several winning their first medals, and some even a first gold medal. In all, there were 599 Olympic scholarship-holders at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, and between them they won 75 medals.

“We have to level the playing field for all your athletes. We can invite them to come to the Games but this is not the ultimate goal; the ultimate goal is to make them competitive, to level the playing field and to close the gap, or at least to narrow the gap between the privileged countries and less privileged countries.”

President Bach also told the delegates that in the Olympic Movement there is no global south or global north; there is just the Olympic Movement. “In our Olympic Movement we are all equal because we not only respect each other, we live in solidarity with each other. When you are competing, and everyone wants to win and you still respect each other, this makes respect a value. But this respect is not enough for us; we want to level the playing field, and for this we also need solidarity.”

President Bach informed them that IOC had increased the funding for Olympic Solidarity programmes by 10 per cent to USD 650 million, to show that it was “walking the talk”.

New world order

The success of the Olympic Games in uniting the world and the increased budget for Olympic Solidarity to level the playing field were taking place at a time when a new world order was in the making, the President explained.

“In the making of this new world order, we in the Olympic Movement have only one role to play, and this is to be the unifying factor and not to take sides with regard to the emerging geopolitical blocks, but to be open to all of them and to offer all of them what sport has to offer to any society. This is our contribution to a peaceful society and the mission of the Olympic Games.”

Looking ahead

The IOC President then turned to the fast-changing world, and particularly the changes in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) and the need to take full advantage of these.

“There we have a great opportunity and some risks to face, but if we are not seizing the opportunities we will have risks alone. If we are not proactive in studying what AI can do for sport, and if we are not doing it, others will do it for us, and then we are at great risk of losing the soul of sport. Then it will only be about the commercial and political interests. They will not care about our values. It would only be an advantage to a small handful of richer countries,” he warned.

He urged the delegates to be ahead of the curve.

“This is why we have taken the initiative with our Olympic Artificial Intelligence Agenda to initiate development of AI products, and always with one goal: to make it accessible to all athletes.”

In closing, the President thanked the NOCs and ANOC. He told them that, “I still feel like one of you because, when I was elected IOC President, I was sitting here amongst you.

“Right now I would like to say how grateful I am for your support and the many beautiful moments we shared together and the very many initiatives we started together.”

“You will always have a special place in my heart,” he added.

For the full video of the speech click here.