International Olympic Committee meets in Buenos Aires

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) began its 133rd meeting here on Monday, with a session in which its members will decide on the host country of the next Summer Youth Olympic Games, to be held in Africa, but which started off with some very positive remarks about the current summer games being held in the Argentine capital.

IOC President Thomas Bach of Germany opened the meeting at a Buenos Aires hotel by commenting on the "great beginning" of the 2018 Youth Olympics that was attended by a crowd of some 200,000 people, according to the organisation, and was "overwhelming in both quantity and quality," reports Efe.

Though Bach said there is still much to judge about the games as a whole, which run from last Saturday through October 18, he noted that he had never seen such a positive reaction at any Olympics as that of Argentine citizens on the first day, "with people standing in long lines" to watch the various sports.

The head of the Buenos Aires municipal government, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, also spoke of the "successful" opening ceremony on 9 de Julio Avenue, the city's main thoroughfare.

Meanwhile the president of the Argentine Olympic Committee, Gerardo Werthein, said these games are going ahead, even though Argentina "had something of a financial crisis" several weeks ago, a reference to the high inflation and devaluation of the currency, for which the International Monetary Fund authorized a credit of $57 billion.

As part of its agenda on Monday, the IOC session in Argentina will decide on the venue of the next Summer Youth Olympic Games, to be held in 2022, from among the competing African countries of Botswana, Nigeria, Tunisia and Senegal.

The latter starts with the advantage of having been recommended by the IOC Executive Committee last September 7.

The organisers of the next summer games and also of the Winter Olympics will report on the state of their plans.

On Tuesday the IOC will report on the progress being made with its Anti-Doping Rules, among other matters.

Also to be debated are the objectives of the Olympic Agenda 2020, the possibility of including new regulations, and future improvements of the Olympism in Action Forum, whose first edition was held in the Argentine capital last Friday and Saturday, and was "a great success," according to the IOC president.

--IANS

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