IOC Executive Board meeting comes to a close in Quebec

The IOC Executive Board (EB) today wrapped up its two-day meeting in Quebec. The EB was convening alongside the SportAccord convention and, as is tradition, met with Olympic Summer and Winter International Federations.

2020 bidding process

On the first day of the meeting, the EB selected Istanbul (Turkey), Tokyo (Japan) and Madrid (Spain) as candidate cities for the 2020 Olympic Games.

Financial agreement with the USOC

This morning, the EB approved a new revenue-sharing agreement between the IOC and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).

NOC matters

Furthermore, the EB discussed different matters related to National Olympic Committees (NOCs). It was decided to allow duly qualified Kuwaiti athletes to participate under the Olympic flag with the title "Independent Olympic Athlete" in the London 2012 Olympic Games. The NOC of Kuwait has been suspended since January 2010.

The EB also discussed women's participation in the fast approaching London 2012 Games, and was satisfied to hear that the NOCs of Qatar and Brunei will include female athletes in their delegations for the first time. Talks with the NOC of Saudi Arabia on this topic are still ongoing.

The EB was also updated on the situation of the NOC of Ecuador, which had been confronted recently with government interference. However, thanks to fruitful meetings between the main parties involved, the autonomy of sport in Ecuador was successfully restored and sports leaders in the country can now fully focus on their athletes' preparation for and participation in the Olympic Games in London.

Games updates

Having received reports from the IOC commissions and administration, the EB also learnt about the progress being made with the preparations for forthcoming Olympic Games, namely London 2012, Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, and PyeongChang 2018. With only two months to go until the London 2012 Games, the Organising Committee under the leadership of Sebastian Coe gave a snapshot of the last preparations and of the excitement which the Torch Relay is currently spreading all over the UK. The EB members congratulated them for being truly ready to welcome the world.

New events for the Youth Olympic Games

For the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, the IOC decided to accept six new events to generate team atmosphere, promote gender equality and balance sprint and endurance events. These events are as follows:

• Athletics: an 8x100m mixed team relay event
• Canoe: Women's C1 head-to-head sprint racing and Women's C1 obstacle slalom racing event
• Aquatics: 800m freestyle for men and women and a diving team event

(Source: IOC)