The inaugural Host City: Bid to Win conference has provided a thought-provoking and timely debate on bidding procedures for major events.

The conference examined engaging themes central to the debate including the IOC’s proposed Agenda 2020 reforms and emerging trends in the bidding for and hosting of large-scale, multi-sport and cultural events.  

Speaking at the one-day conference at the St James’ Court, A Taj Hotel in London, IOC Vice-President, Sir Craig Reedie, said the IOC is determined to change its approach in response to the current bidding climate around major events.

“The evidence of the 2022 winter bids shows us that this is necessary. The IOC is right to look at its processes and try and correct the current situation. It wants to adopt a partnership approach and start a dialogue with bid cities.

Reedie also called for the communications gap to be plugged between the IOC and Host Cities.

“The IOC faces a communications gap. There has been a failure to get Host Cities and members of the public to understand that there are two budgets, an organising committee budget for staging the games, and a non-organising committee budget which looks at infrastructure and legacy for the host city.”

“Sochi was certainly not encouraged by the IOC to make the scale of investment that they did. It was for the future of the city not the two weeks the games were hosted.”

Stefan Lindeberg, President, Swedish Olympic Committee, agreed a breakdown in communication had occurred during Sweden’s recent attempts at bidding for the Winter Olympic Games.

Lindeberg, said: “The public has to understand the costs and the risks. The process needs to be transparent and this needs to be communicated much earlier in the bidding process.

“We want much more cooperation from the IOC. We want a situation where we start with a discussion about our city, our legacy, what we want from the Games then work with the IOC to create a host city contract that we understand not something that is imposed on us.”

On declining to bid for 2022 Winter Games, Lindeberg said: “If we could do it again our answer would be yes. At the time we needed a much clearer statement from the IOC about exactly what it means to bid. If we had had the discussion we are having now in January, our answer would have been yes.”

Speaking on the same panel, Alexander Koch, FIFA Corporate Communications Manager, discussed how rights holders choose host cities:

“We need to be asking the countries why they are bidding. In the media it is quite often reduced to the economic value but if you ask this question to each country you will get vastly different answers. If we take Germany, for example, they had a very clear vision for why they wanted to host the 2006 World Cup – to present a unified Germany to the world. The decision to host has to make sense for that country. That is why 2018 went to Russia and 2022 went to Qatar because their bids made the most sense for their countries.”

In a later panel which looked at evaluating bidding and hosting around the world Mario Andrada, Executive Director of Communications for Rio 2016, said:

“The venues will be ready on time; we are 100% confident of that. Our focus will be on transport, accommodation and getting the people ready so they have confidence in the legacy for Rio.

“We will, of course, learn lessons from London 2012 but Rio 2016 will be a different Games, it will have a Brazilian soul. We have to show it is good for the city, good for the country and good for the population. We want to focus on the self-esteem of our people and to deliver an intelligent and efficient Games with a clear and tangible legacy.”

WPP Chief Executive Sir Martin Sorrell, on the issue of the cost of hosting major events, said:

“The argument has not been as made cogently as it could be, bidding just accelerates the investment which is necessary anyway, be it airports, rapid transport or other city infrastructure.  The benefit of the legacy is not being articulated as strongly as it could be by cities.

“Communicating the legacy of hosting these events, the intangible side of it, is critical to engaging the public. In order to achieve success you have to articulate clearly the benefits of staging an Olympics, a World Cup or a Grand Prix.”

Host City: Bid to Win brought together experts and decision makers to explore the challenges and benefits of bidding for major global events. At a time when the bidding process for events is under the spotlight Host City: Bid to Win has engaged expert insight into the heart of the debate including the IOC’s proposed Agenda 2020 reforms and emerging trends in the bidding for and hosting of large-scale, multi-sport and cultural events. 

For further information on Host City: Bid to Win please visit: http://www.bidtowin-hostcity.net

The Tengrinews website said Kazakhstan’s Vice-Minister of Culture and Sport, Tastanbekov Yesentai, cited the example of this year’s winter Olympics in Sochi, where the Russia authorities successfully implemented a mixed funding model and also pointed towards Tokyo’s projected revenues for the 2020 summer Olympics as arguments in favour of his government’s approach.

Yesentai said: “Russia has used a mixed model at the Olympics in Sochi. Their income made $10bn (€7.9bn). Japan has officially declared that it would be able to earn $30bn from hosting the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in 2020.

“We also want to stick to the mixed model of financial management, in which the share of state involvement would be 33 per cent and the rest will be raised by investors. In that case we will be able to hold the Olympics in 2022 at a proper level.”

Concerns regarding state financing for hosting the 2022 winter Olympics have become a central theme of what is now a sparse bidding process.

Almaty and Beijing are the only two cities left in the running after Oslo withdrew from the race at the start of this month. The Norwegian government decided against providing the required financial support to host the multi-sport event due to prohibitive projected costs.

Oslo was the latest in a long line of cities to end a bid, following Stockholm in Sweden, Krakow in Poland and Lviv in Ukraine, while bids from St. Moritz in Switzerland and Munich in Germany were scrapped after public referendums.

Meanwhile, Kazakh Olympic Committee vice-president Pavel Novikov has rejected calls for Almaty to share Olympic hosting rights with Astana, acknowledging Olympic bidding rules that the Games must be awarded to a single city.

The International Olympic Committee will select the host city for the 2022 Games on July 31, 2015.

The exit of yet another European city yesterday from the bidding contest for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games is regrettable, but the remaining candidates are strong and the bidding procedure is still the best in the world, IOC Vice President Craig Reedie told HOST CITY on Thursday.

“I regret the Oslo decision. But it’s their call and you have to respect their decision," he said. "It would have been nice to have a Games in Oslo, in a real centre of winter sport.” 

On Wednesday Oslo followed Stockholm, Krakow and Lviv in retracting its candidature for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, leaving Beijing and Almaty as the remaining candidates. Munich and St. Moritz had withdrawn from the race before the applicant stage. 

The party with the largest membership in Norway’s coalition government failed to gain a majority support for Oslo's bid, with cost being cited as the primary concern – despite the country’s large sovereign wealth fund and a plan to use existing winter sports infrastructure. 

“A number of cities decided not to go ahead because of domestic decisions taken in those countries, which were presented on the basis of a whole range of issues, some of which were cost,” Sir Craig Reedie told HOST CITY.

“I’m not sure that cost was a particular item in Munich’s decision or if people decided to do something else with their time and their efforts. If that’s the case then certainly the IOC has to look at the situation closely and find out if what they are currently doing is sustainable.

“There is an obligation on the IOC to present the benefits in a better way. We really have to prove that the recent Games have in the main all broken even with a small surplus. London was a good example – a small surplus run by a private company. And the infrastructure and stadium costs built by public money came in below the original estimates and will last for generations.

“We need to get that message across, so that future cities who are considering bids understand the difference. And the IOC makes an enormous contribution to the organising committee’s budget: the estimate for the 2022 Games was US$880.”

Reedie is confident that Beijing and Almaty are good potential host cities. “They passed the examination of the technical working group; they went from candidate city to applicant city. We’ve had a good hard look at them; with certain minor modifications, I think the technical people in the IOC are happy that good Winter Games can be had in both.”

There is no risk of Beijing or Almaty withdrawing due to cost concerns. “Neither of the other two cities have a financial issue,” Reedie said. 

“The Chinese say they have a very happy memory of the Beijing Games and they can see doing it again. The Youth Games in Nanjing were terrific; they are clearly very committed to the Olympic movement and see the opportunity of developing winter sport in their country. 

“In Kazakhstan they see the opportunity of the Games being a catalyst for their city and country, in a way that nothing else ever could be. 

“So I pretty certain that they both will go ahead and impress the evaluation commission; they will produce good bid books and we’ll have good contest to decide in Kuala Lumpur.”

The bidding process will not change - yet

The bidding process for the 2022 Games will not change even though there are just two candidates left.

“You can’t change the rules of the game halfway through the game simply because one city has decided not to go ahead. So we’re happy to have both of them,” Sir Craig Reedie told HOST CITY.

How the IOC will run its bidding process beyond 2022 is currently under review, as part of the Olympic Agenda 2020. 

One suggestion made by four European National Olympic Committees was that the recommendations of evaluation commissions should count as votes in the host city elections. “Having chaired the last evaluation commission, I thought our report was very accurate and we pointed out plusses and minuses for all three cities, so nobody could remotely say they hadn’t been informed,” said Reedie. 

“That said, one of the strengths that the IOC has is that 100 plus members actually decide, and when you’ve got that number of people deciding, you are probably on a much safer basis in terms of the quality of the decision. 

“I think at the moment the IOC has the best election process in world sport. People may think that’s a funny thing to say when a perfectly valid potential city has withdrawn, but it’s just as valid now as it was yesterday. It is an excellent and highly authoritative system. Now whether that system will proceed going forward is what we are going to discuss over the next few months, and no doubt we will discuss in London on 28th October. 

To read the full interview with Sir Craig Reedie, read the next issue of HOST CITY magazine – or better still, register for Bid to Win at www.bidtowin-hostcity.net and join in the discussion on 28th October

Beijing, which staged the 2008 Summer Olympics, is up against the Norwegian city of Oslo and Almaty in Kazakhstan for the right to host the 2022 Games, with the IOC set to select the host city on July 31, 2015.

The second edition of the Summer Youth Olympics will conclude on Thursday, and Bach told the Xinhua news agency that Nanjing’s organisation of the event had been “seamless”, echoing the thoughts of Chinese IOC member Yang Yang, who said that Nanjing’s success would lift Beijing’s hopes of becoming the first city to stage the Summer and Winter Olympics.

“Of course it can help,” Bach said. “Nanjing has shown again the excellent way in which China has been able to organise a big event, as well as the friendliness and hospitality of the Chinese people.

“It is a good showcase for China and will, of course, support Beijing’s bid.

“The organisation here [in Nanjing] is flawless. We haven't had any kinds of problems to solve so we have just been able to enjoy the Games with the athletes, the volunteers and the people of Nanjing.

“It has been a great combination of friendliness and efficiency at the same time. If you have the two together, you are guaranteed to have a successful Games.”

Former IOC President Jacques Rogge said earlier this month that, if Beijing were to be awarded the 2022 Games, he is sure they would “do a very good job”.

Bids for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games will be among the topics discussed by IOC Vice President Sir Craig Reedie and others at the HOST CITY: BID TO WIN conference, which will take place in London on 28th October. Visit www.bidtowin-hostcity.net for more information.

Five cities have submitted their application files for the Winter Olympic Games by the deadline of Friday 14 March. The IOC Executive Board has until 9 July to select the successful candidate cities.

While safety concerns have exerted a major influence on recent hosting decisions, individuality will the critical factor for future host cities, IOC Executive Board member Prof. Dr. Ugur Erdener told HOST CITY.

The pool of applicants – Krakow, Oslo and Almaty, Lviv and Beijing – presents a strong emphasis on growth markets, with only one Western European city and none from America. This is particularly notable given that the 2022 Winter Olympic Games will be preceded by two editions in new territories.

“There was a very successful organisation in Sochi and everybody was very happy being there,” Erdener told HOST CITY. “It was one of the very best Olympic Games organised. The next Winter Games will be held in PyeongChang, and now we have potential candidates from Europe and Asia again.

“We will have to see their applicant files, their projects and some of their explanations and then we can have some ideas. At the moment we don’t have any idea of the projects details, budget et cetera.”

Under the new leadership of Dr Thomas Bach and his revitalised top table, the IOC is keen to uphold the value of its flagship events. “The Olympic Games is the top priority for the IOC and the Olympic Movement,” Erdener said.

However, this does not necessarily give an established, known host like Oslo an advantage. The IOC will always be interested in something new to promote.

“It should be a unique activity; it is very important that all Winter, Summer and Youth Olympic Games should be unique – this is very important for the IOC,” said Erdener. 

“We have to be more attractive, especially for TV – because TV is the most important factor for all kinds of sports facilities, especially for the Olympic Games.”

As President of the Turkish Olympic Committee, Erdener led Istanbul’s bid for the 2020 Olympic Games. “I congratulated my friends in the Tokyo team; it was a very fair competition and there was only one place for the winner for 2020.

“After having seen some delays in Rio 2016 project, probably some of our colleagues thought that a safe city would be better. As we all know, still there are some discussions about Rio project.”

IOC members will vote for the host city of the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games during the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur on 31 July 2015.

Prof. Dr. Erdener is also president of the World Archery Federation and president of the Organising Committee for SportAccord Convention, which takes place in Belek, Turkey from 6-10 April.

For the full exclusive interview with Prof. Dr. Erdener, register for HOST CITY and make sure you get the next issue.

The Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach in Lausanne on December 11 to discuss how China can strengthen its cooperation with the global sports organisation.

On his visit to Switzerland Wang also met with the director-generals of the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as the president of Switzerland.

According to China Daily, Wang told Bach, “China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the IOC while upholding the Olympic spirit.”

Wang also expressed his confidence in the Beijing and Zhangjiakou’s ability to stage the Winter Olympic Games in 2022, highlighting the success of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

"With the all-out efforts of the Chinese people and the substantial help of the IOC, I am confident that the 2022 Winter Olympics will be another huge success," he said.

According to Yutang Sports Marketing, Wang stressed the importance of sports in human and national development, recognising the great contributions the IOC has made to promoting global sports development and strengthening the friendship among people from different countries.

Bach reportedly said China’s plans for sports development are at one with the IOC’s, noting the tremendous contributions China has made to the IOC and expressing gratitude to China for its cooperation with the IOC.

The IOC also looks set to strengthen this cooperation beyond the hosting of the Winter Games. "The IOC will be a full helping hand in delivering a fruitful 2022 Winter Olympics, while expecting to team up on further cooperation with China," Bach said.

In the meeting with UN Director General Michael Moller, Wang said "Against the backdrop that the global situation is continuously becoming more complicated, the role of the United Nations can only be strengthened instead of weakened."

Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, told Wang "China has set an excellent example in poverty alleviation and health undertakings, and I believe it will contribute more to improving global public health and sustainable development."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Executive Board (EB) today approved the venues for the five sports - baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing – that had events approved during the IOC session in Rio de Janeiro this year for the Tokyo 2020 programme only.

These additional events were proposed by the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee using the new flexibility given by Olympic Agenda 2020 for host cities to propose events only for their edition of the Games.

The IOC EB agreed to the following venue proposals from the Tokyo 2020 organisers:

The baseball/softball competitions will be held in the Yokohama Stadium (Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture), which is one of Japan’s best-loved baseball venues.

Karate will take place at the Nippon Budokan (Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo), which is already hosting judo in 2020 and, as Japan’s mecca for martial arts, is a legacy venue from the 1964 Games.

Skateboarding and sport climbing will be hosted at the Aomi Urban Sports Venue, which will be a dynamic and innovative temporary facility situated in a spectacular location with Tokyo Bay as a backdrop.

Finally, surfing competitions will be located on Tsurigasaki Beach, which is situated at the southern end of the Kujukuri Beach in Chiba prefecture. The beach is a popular surfing destination and has hosted a number of international and national surfing competitions.

This brings the total number of venues for the Tokyo 2020 Games to 39, including 8 new permanent venues, 22 existing sites and 9 temporary venues, most of which are located in two zones of the city -the Heritage Zone and the Tokyo Bay Zone. These two zones will offer a unique look at Tokyo and Japan to spectators attending the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

In addition to updating the EB on operational matters and the new venues, the Tokyo delegation also spoke about the success of their participation in the Olympic Games Rio 2016, with 300 staff taking part in the observer programmes run by the IOC and IPC; Japan House with its 82,000 visitors; and an acclaimed handover segment. The homecoming parade of Japan’s 87 Rio medallists was also seen by a record 800,000 people on the streets of Tokyo, which underlined further the support of the Japanese people for the Games.

The Rio 2016 Organising Committee made its first presentation to the IOC EB since the “Marvellous Games” came to a close this August. In particular, they spoke about the legacy of the Games with 200,000 passengers per day now using Metro Line 4 and 450,000 being carried on the three new BRT lines built using the Games as a catalyst. In addition, according to reports published after the Games, Rio 2016 also delivered an economic impact of USD 21.66 billion, created 1.79 million jobs and had an important tourism impact with 1.2 million visitors during the Rio Olympic Games, who spent USD 304.1 million.

With 428 days to go until the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, the President of the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee (POCOG), Hee-beom Lee, presented the status of Games preparations in the next Olympic host city. President Lee reported about the large number of activities taking place in PyeongChang this winter, including the World Press Briefing, the World Broadcaster Meeting, the Chef de Mission meeting, the One-Year-to-Go celebrations, the numerous visits by the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Federations (IFs), and the 24 test events that will see some of the world’s best winter athletes take to the snow and ice already this season in the Republic of Korea.

Finally, Beijing 2022 gave an impressive report on their progress, as the Organising Committee takes shape with 176 staff now in place - 50 of whom participated in the Rio 2016 Observer Programme. The Committee underlined the efforts being made to develop winter sports in China and promote the Games. One example of this promotion was the figure shared by the Beijing organisers that last winter, the number of residents practising winter sports in Beijing and Zhangjiakou alone increased by over 30%, reaching 6.8 million people.

Source: International Olympic Committee

The formal bidding process for the 24th IOC Winter Olympic and Paralympics Games is now well underway with the International Olympic Committee receiving six official applications by its deadline of 14 November 2013.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s recently appointed President Thomas Bach expressed his delight with the applicants. He said “These cities and their supporters clearly understand the benefits that hosting the Games can have and the long lasting legacy that a Games can bring to a region.”

In December 2013, representatives of the six potential host nations attended an orientation seminar at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne. The event, held over three days, served to introduce the would-be hosts to what hosting a modern Games would involve. The applicant cities learned the key criteria against which their applicant files will be judged.

The bidding parties are a mix of traditional and developing winter destinations, with four European cities and two in Asia.

Almaty
azakhstan’s biggest city and the host of the 2017 Winter Universiade was one of the first cities to officially put its name forward, back in August 2013. Almaty had previously applied for the Games in 2014 but did not get past the applicant phase; it also expressed interest for 2018 but did not apply.

Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country in the world and it is in a region of the world – Central Asia – that has not yet hosted an Olympic Games. It would also be the first former Soviet state to host an Olympics Games.

Beijing
The host city of the 2008 Summer Olympic and Paralympics will bid to host the indoor events for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympics. The outdoor events would be hosted in the city of Zhangjiakou which is nicknamed “Beijing’s Northern door”; the two cities are 200 kilometres apart.

If successful, this would be the first time China has hosted the Winter Games. The country does have previous experience of bidding for the winter edition, but has not yet got past the application stage. The city of Harbin, which hosted the 2009 Winter Universiade, declared an interest in 2010, 2014 and 2018 but weak infrastructure hampered their progress.

Krakow
The Polish city of Krakow is proposing to bid for the Games jointly with the Slovak ski resort of Jasná.

The Polish Olympic Committee has used experience from Zakapane’s 2006 winter games bid and issues to the alpine events being held in Poland. For this reason the Polish OC will apply together with its Slovak counterpart to deliver the proposed bid with the Alpine events on the Tatra Mountain range.

Every season, Jasná holds FIS (International Ski Federation) alpine events. The 2014 events will take place from the end of February until mid to late March.

Former Winter Snowboarding Olympian Jagna Marczułajtis- Walczak, who is leading the Krakow bid, has asserted that hosting events in neighbouring Slovakia is not in breach of IOC rules.

IOC Rule 35.2 reads that “for the Olympic Winter Games, when for geographical or topographical reasons it is impossible to organise certain events or disciplines of a sport in the country of the host city, the IOC may, on an exceptional basis, authorise the holding of them in a bordering country.”

Lviv
The cultural capital of the Ukraine will also bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. The city has experience of mega-events, having hosted high profile group-stage matches involving Germany and Portugal at Euro 2012.

If the bid were to be successful, the alpine events would take place 160 kilometres from Lviv in the Carpathian Mountains.

The Ukrainian Olympic Committee member and pole vaulting legend Sergi Bubka is certain to be a key figure in this bid. He came in fifth place in the race for the IOC presidency.

Oslo
The Norwegian capital is the only applicant city from this list that has a previous Winter Olympic hosting pedigree. In 1952 Oslo hosted the sixth Winter Olympic Games, where 30 countries participated in 22 events.

Norway last held the Winter Olympic and Paralympics in 1994 in Lillehammer. For the 2018 Winter Olympics Games, Oslo expressed an interest to host the games with Lillehammer; however, the bid was not progressed for a number of reasons including public support.

The Oslo bidding committee proposes to utilise Oslo’s current infrastructure and produce a “low-cost and very compact games.”

A referendum saw a slim majority of Oslo’s inhabitants vote in favour of bidding for the 2022 winter Olympic and Paralympics games.

What next?
The next major milestone in the race to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympics is the 14th March 2014. By this date, each of the six applicant cities will hand in their application files to the International Olympic Committee. In July 2014, the successful applicants will then be named as official candidate cities for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympics. The winning bid will be announced in Malaysia at the Kuala Lumpur convention centre at the 127th IOC session on the 31st July 2015. But winning isn’t everything. As Bach said: “While recent Games have left an array of sporting, social, economic and other legacies for the local population, many cities that did not go on to win the right to host the Games have also noted benefits as a result of their bids.”

As violence between protesters and government forces escalated in Kiev, police stated on Thursday that protesters had taken over regional administration headquarters including Lviv, which is bidding to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Speaking at a press conference in Sochi, IOC communications director Mark Adams said of the conflict, “Those are terrible scenes. The Olympic Truce is an important symbolic thing for us.”

The Olympic Truce was established in antiquity between the host city state and its neighbours to ensure safe delivery of the Olympic Games. It was revived in 1993 by a UN resolution and in 1998 the IOC called upon all nations to observe the Truce.

“I’m not sure it plays much part in what’s going on there [in Ukraine]. But clearly we hope the situation will be solved as quickly and with as little bloodshed as possible,” said Adams.

As the ceasefire broke, Bubka tweeted: "I want to bring Olympic Truce to my country. Our athletes are competing hard in Sochi, but peacefully and with honor. Violence has no place in the world."

Bubka, whose 21-year-old pole vault world record was broken in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk on 16 February by Renaud Lavillenie, is a crucial figurehead of Lviv’s bid for the 2022 Games.

He announced on his website: “I'm shocked by what is happening in my native country – especially because the violence is taking place during the Olympic Games – the world’s most peaceful and democratic event. 

“I am once again urging all parties to stop the violence! There is no 'their' Ukraine, or 'your' Ukraine. It is OUR Ukraine. For the sake of the future of our kids let's do everything possible to get back to negotiations and make a compromise.

“I am now in Sochi and I know that our Olympic athletes who compete for the glory of Ukraine fully support me.”

A total 45 athletes from the Ukraine travelled to Sochi 2014. However, BBC journalist Richard Conway tweeted on Thursday that up to half of these Olympians had returned home because of “unrest in their country.”

Several media outlets reported that Ukrainian skier Bogdana Matsotka pulled out of the Games in protest at the use of force in Kiev. On Thursday, the Ukrainian Health Ministry said 28 people had died and 287 had been hospitalised during the standoff between police and protesters in Kiev. Ukraine’s Interior ministry confirmed that security forces had opened fire on protesters.

Black armbands in the Olympic Village

Meanwhile, a request from the Ukrainian Olympic Committee for their athletes to wear black armbands in memory of those killed was rejected by the IOC. 

A statement on the Ukrainian Olympic Committee website said: “Sharing deep pain over the loss of fellow countrymen, the Ukrainian Olympic Committee appealed to the International Olympic Committee to allow Ukrainian athletes to wear black armbands as a sign of mourning, an expression of sorrow and sympathy.

“The answer was received from the IOC that in accordance with the Olympic charter it is not possible to do this.”

Instead, Ukrainian athletes attached black armbands to the national flags hanging from their balconies in the Olympic Village.

IOC President Thomas Bach expressed his sympathy for the Ukraine and his admiration for its Olympians. "I would like to offer my condolences to those who have lost loved ones in these tragic events," he said.

"Our thoughts and sympathy are with the Ukrainian team at what must be a very difficult time. The way they have continued to represent their nation with great dignity is a credit to them and their country. 

"Their presence here is a symbol that sport can build bridges and help to bring people from different backgrounds together in peace.”