Synonyms
IOC, IOK,english: international olympic comiteeIn Germany known as the International Olympic Committee with the common English abbreviation (IOC), it is a non-governmental association with the objective of planning, organizing and holding the Olympic Games of modern times. The founder Pierre de Coubertin moved the headquarters of the IOC to Lausanne, Switzerland in 1915, making it an association with entry in the commercial register of the Swiss Civil Code. In 1981, the Swiss Federal Council granted the International Olympic Committee the status of an international organization under Swiss law and granted it tax privileges.
The IOC reserves the patronage of the Olympic Games and claims all rights of existing symbols in the Olympic Games content (Olympic rings etc.). The official languages of the organization are English and French. The IOC was founded on June 23, 1894, at the Sorbonne in Paris, when Pierre de Coubertin, a convinced philanthropist, tried to bring nations of the world closer together through a common sporting festival.
He, who saw himself as an educational reformer, recognized the opportunity in a revival of the ancient Olympic Games through steadily growing internationalization. 78 delegates from 37 sports federations from 9 countries decided to hold the first Olympic Games of modern times in 1896 in Athens. 13 men from 11 countries made up the founding committee.
The first president of the IOC was the Greek delegate Dimitrios Vikelas, a literary figure representing the first venue. Vikelas handed over the office after the games to Pierre de Coubertin as representative of the 2nd Olympic Games in Paris. Coubertin kept the chair as a permanently elected person until 1925, after W. Sloane gave up the chair in view of St. Louis.
A German member is to be looked in vain in the foundation staff of the IOC, since also Coubertin was influenced by the constant conflicts between France and Germany by his compatriots. The first German member in the IOC was provided by the entrepreneur Willibald Gebhardt, in January 1896 in preparation for the Olympic Games in Athens. Pierre de Coubertin wanted to contribute to the construction of a peaceful and just world by reviving the Olympic Games.
With the idea of international understanding through sporting fair play, the communication of values and solidarity, his philanthropic worldview was translated into practical action. The concept of Olympism, which he introduced, was coined and characterized by physical, mental and spiritual strengths in a form of peaceful competition. In the course of time, numerous sports organizations have joined this Olympic movement.
Among the most important tasks of the Olympic Movement are mediation between nations, the fight against discrimination and others, as well as the fight against targeted doping in sport, which in recent years to decades has become the biggest problem of professionalized sport. The Olympic Charter comprises 64 articles in 5 chapters. It is a clearly defined set of rules that describes the course of the Olympic Games and provides binding guidelines for the international sports federations.
For the first time in 1924 at the IOC meeting in Rome, these fixed regulations and decisions were systematically summarized in writing. In terms of content, the Olympic Charter defines a kind of code of conduct with ethical foundations. The annual ordinary meeting of all IOC members is legally the most important organ of the IOC.
Both the President and the Executive Committee, all members and honorary presidents are re-elected. Furthermore, decisions are made on the Olympic Charter. The President, or one third of all members together, is/are authorized to call an extraordinary meeting.
Special interest is given to the choice of venues for future Olympic Games. Each member has one vote. However, if a country is still to be elected, the country representative may not vote.
Since the existence of the International Olympic Committee, there have been isolated cases of decisive conflicts. In the founding years, it was mainly boycotting attitudes of individual countries towards the games. Just four years after its foundation, the facade of the IOC began to crumble when the 1900 and 1904 Games were a single disappointment.The First World War forced Coubertin to move the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee to Switzerland in order to save the Olympic Games from being lost.
More decisive than the external crises, however, is the internal crisis of 1998, when it became known that several IOC members had been bribed to host the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. As a result, 11 members of the IOC had to resign and four others received warnings. In March 1999, an Ethics and Reform Commission was convened to review the cases in question.
Financial disclosure, increased transparency, and publicity at meetings were the first visible consequences of the scandal in 1999. The proposals of the Reform Commission were adopted by the IOC General Assembly on December 10 and 11, 1999, and the Olympic Charter was subsequently amended. The newly elected members are thus in office for eight years, but can be re-elected for eight years at a time, and must resign after the age of 70 at the latest.
No country may represent more than one member in the IOC. Since 1999, the 15-member Executive Commission has consisted of the President, Vice-Presidents and an athletes’ representative. The Commission meets eight times a year and decides on possible changes at the Olympic Games. The composition of the IOC has changed as follows:
- 70 personal members
- 15 Olympic athletes (11 from summer games and 4 from winter games)
- 15 representatives of IF ́s (sports associations)
- 15 representatives of the NOK`s (National Olympic Committee)
