The IOC presents a handbook for the 2036 Olympic bid, but has yet to provide the most important documents and rules. The greater involvement of IOC members in the selection process emphasised at the June Session has not been implemented. On the contrary, power remains with the Executive Board.
Olympic bids and the Olympic programme: At its 146th Session in Lausanne, the IOC has abandoned several key elements of the Thomas Bach era and is returning to a number of principles that were largely developed under the Belgian Jacques Rogge.
The panel is comfortably satisfied that former Olympic powerbroker Ahmad interfered in the 2023 election in favor of his brother Talal. The award reveals a parallel civil suit quietly filed in Lausanne. An appeal against his separate 15-year IOC ban is being litigated in proceedings of its own.
EXCLUSIVE: Why did the Greek Emmanuel Katsiadakis unexpectedly resign as interim president of the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) in April 2025? Read the answer here: because he refused to send a letter to US President Trump asking for the sanctions against Alisher Usmanov to be lifted.
What is the status of the Olympic Truce right now? Does anyone remember it? IOC Napoleon Thomas Bach once wanted to unite divided Korea at the Winter Games and dreamed of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. His chosen successor, Kirsty Coventry, remains silent in these days of war, of course.
Imagine if that were to happen at the next IOC session in June. Rumors to that effect are currently circulating within the Olympic family. In one fell swoop, Germany would lose 73 percent of all Olympic winter sports medals, for which hundreds of millions of euros are paid. A catastrophe.
The reporting on Nazi symbolism in The Olympic Shop deserves some background information and documentation. So here is a story about how the IOC basically blackmailed (German) Olympic bidders and how much money the IOC Group paid for the 1936 Olympic films financed by Joseph Goebbels.
EXCLUSIVE: Following internal investigations, IOC director Marie Sallois has been relieved of her duties, but strangely enough, she is now coordinating president Coventry's ‘Fit for the Future’ project. Who is protecting her? Employees report similar problems in other IOC directorates.
Read the figures for the 2021–2024 Olympic cycle: more than $55 million was paid to IOC directors – much more than the top-tier Olympic federations (World Athletics & Co) receive from the IOC revenue. The total amount is significantly higher, as some salaries are kept secret.
For a quarter of a century, the scandal-ridden Pharaoh Hassan Moustafa has ruled world handball and, now in his ninth decade and marked by illness, wants to be crowned IHF president again in Cairo shortly before Christmas. Three opponents want to prevent this.
As minutes suggest, senior IOC member Ser Miang Ng, who is also Honorary Chairman of World Taekwondo's Kukkiwon, has obviously been campaigning for Virtual Taekwondo, a game developed by his children's companies – with the aim of it being included in the Olympic Esports Games and other events.
Next week, I will provide German readers with exclusive background information on the Olympic bid. Since dubious websites such as Insidethegames are spreading unsorted nonsense, a mixture of propaganda and AI hallucinations, I'm offering the English-speaking audience a brief summary in the meantime.
The newsletters about the corruption allegations against IOC finance chief Ser Miang Ng are making headlines. The IOC is responding to inquiries from Singaporean media with its usual and predictably primitive propaganda.
Triathlon corruption is now attracting considerable interest among athletes and some of the biggest names in the sport. Rightly so: be outraged! Demand an independent investigation and new elections! For anyone who missed my reports in late 2024, here are the facts that describe a mafia-like system.
EXCLUSIVE: The head of the American confederation, Liber García (Uruguay), rigged elections with other continental princes and the then secretary general Antonio Arimany. The new triathlon boss Arimany is also ICAS vice president. An opposition is calling for an investigation and new elections.
Kirsty Coventry is putting the bid process on hold for the time being, but will still host a delegation from India next week in Lausanne. The Indians believed they had already secured the 2036 Olympics, and Coventry is their most important asset. Now, the opaque procedure is to be thoroughly revised
