IOC President congratulates Association of Summer Olympic International Federations on its 40th anniversary
International Olympic Committee
31 May 2023 – Addressing the General Assembly of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), IOC President Thomas Bach told the participants: “The growth of ASOIF reflects this evolution towards ever more professionalisation of sports and sports event organisation.”
He continued: “In today’s complex environment, the IFs are essential to finding innovative solutions to continuously modernise sport, and in this way contribute to the success of the Olympic Games. This importance of the IFs in Olympic Games planning is explicitly recognised and highlighted in Olympic Agenda 2020 and Olympic Agenda 2020+5.”
During his speech, the President also praised ASOIF for helping to strengthen unity in the Olympic Movement. “We are always stronger than the sum of our parts. The collective strength of IFs makes all of us in the Olympic Movement stronger as well,” he told the General Assembly. “I would in particular like to thank the ASOIF Council for its very clear declaration, emphasising the necessity to separate sport and politics,” he added.
In this context, the IOC President also welcomed the recent statement from the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, where the leaders of France, Italy, the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan had said: “While fully respecting the autonomy of sporting organisations, we are focused on fair sporting competition as well as on ensuring that Russian and Belarusian athletes are in no way appearing as representatives of their states.” President Bach noted that this was fully aligned with the IOC’s position with regard to the participation of individual neutral athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport.
President Bach concluded by looking to the future and successful Olympic Games Paris 2024, which he said would be “a true festival of sport and humanity”.
