"We are in a period of transition in the Olympic Movement," ASOIF President Ingmar de Vos said in his speech welcoming IOC President-Elect Kirsty Coventry and paying tribute to IOC President Thomas Bach, at the ASOIF General Assembly.
Also addressing President-Elect Kirsty Coventry, World Athletics President Lord Coe said: "There is a huge opportunity with the new leadership to create the reset around the relationship between the IOC and the IFs, and particularly the review of the revenue generation model. 
"We all want the pinnacle of Olympic sport being the pinnacle of the four year summer sporting cycle and we look forward to working with you. You will have the support all the IFs; we stand ready to support you. 
IOC President-Elect Kirsty Coventry said: "We would all love to say we hope the next few years are going to be smooth but I'm not sure that's quite going to be the case."
Listing the challenges ahead, she referred to "all the geopolitics we are going to need to navigate, the more and more conflicts that our world is facing, revenue models."
"We won't always agree. We hope we can be respectful enough to disagree... but that's what a family is about. It's how we are going to come together to make sure we have the best Olympic Games and the best platform for generations to come."

Bravely challenge models

With reference to recent "tough discussions" with ASOIF about "event delivery", she said "International federations need to play a greater role."
"It's important to take some time to engage with all of you to fully understand not just want your expectations are, but how we are going to deliver extraordinary Games in LA and Brisbane, and into the future. 
"We have to be brave enough to challenge some of the models that we've been doing.
"It's very clear there are two priorities, two pillars: the Olympic Games, and ensuring the Olympic Games is the biggest success for our athletes; and the second one is then building a better world through sport. The first one has to be extremely successful in order to have the second one. 
"So we really need to focus on how we are going to ensure together we are going to have incredible Games that will inspire generations and more people across the world."

The Belgian, Ingmar De Vos, Council member of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and President of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), will stand for election as the next ASOIF President at the 48th General Assembly on 9 April in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The third term of incumbent President Francesco Ricci Bitti will come to an end on 31 December 2024.

The President is elected by secret ballot for a term of four years in the year of the Summer Olympic Games and takes up the position on 1 January of the following year.

The nomination of Mr De Vos was the sole candidature received by the official deadline of 25 March. In line with the ASOIF Statutes, Full Members may nominate one of their executive body members for the position of ASOIF President.

Ingmar De Vos has served as FEI President since 2014 and as ASOIF Council member since 2019. An IOC Member since 2017, he is part of the IOC Coordination Commission for LA28, the Legal Affairs Commission, and the Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commission. He is also a SportAccord Executive Committee member, ASOIF representative on the WADA Executive Committee, member of the Board of Directors of the Belgium Olympic Committee, and a UN International Gender Champion.

The 48th General Assembly will be organised during the SportAccord World Sport & Business Summit, which takes place from 7 to 11 April in Birmingham, United Kingdom. It will be fully livestreamed on YouTube. Click here to learn more about the agenda.

[Source: ASOIF[] The General Assembly of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) convened today at SportAccord in Gold Coast, Queensland (Australia), and elected Marisol Casado (International Triathlon Union), Ingmar De Vos (International Equestrian Federation) and Morinari Watanabe (International Gymnastics Federation) as Council members for a four-year term of office. Whilst Marisol Casado was re-elected for another term of office, Ingmar De Vos and Morinari Watanabe will replace José Perurena (International Canoe Federation), whose mandate had also come to an end, and former FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann who tragically passed away last autumn. During a moment of silence, the General Assembly remembered Patrick Baumann and his outstanding contributions to sport and the Olympic Movement.

Marisol Casado was elected President of the ITU in 2008 and became an IOC Member in 2010. She is also a Council member of GAISF. Ingmar De Vos was elected President of the FEI in 2014. An IOC Member since 2017, he is also a GAISF Council member and GAISF representative on the WADA Executive Committee. Morinari Watanabe was elected President of the FIG in 2016. An IOC Member since 2018, he is also a member of the Tokyo 2020 Executive Board.

The future of global sport and the role of International Federations (IFs) were key topics on the agenda of the General Assembly. ASOIF’s report on the “Future of Global Sport”, launched in February this year, received very positive reactions during the meeting. A number of member federations stated that the report recommendations had gained momentum within their organisations and will be discussed at their upcoming Executive Board meetings.

ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said: “The future of global sport, the role of IFs and their governance are all intertwined. By examining these three aspects at the same time, we aim to strengthen our member federations and help them tackle current and future challenges in a fast-evolving world. I am very glad to hear they have started to make use of the report findings in their daily work and implement some of the recommendations.”

On the topic of IF governance, ASOIF members agreed on the procedure of the third governance review, to be conducted between late 2019 and early 2020, with the declared objective to see at least 26 of the 28 full ASOIF members score 120 points (out of a maximum of 200 points). In order to support this process, the ASOIF Governance Support and Monitoring Unit (GSMU), established in late 2018, will continue to help IFs achieve progress in good governance.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Organising Committee shared their plan for their one-year-to-go celebrations on 24 July this year and reported that they had released lately their competition schedule (session by session) to the general public. The recent launch of the ticketing sales website was hailed a success as well, with already more than two million ID registrations clocked by 31 March 2019. Tokyo 2020 also promised to collaborate closely with the IFs regarding the upcoming test events which will be important to fine-tune operations for Games time.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games Organising Committee presented their new Event Delivery Model to leverage IF expertise for an optimal and cost-efficient Games delivery. They have already started to work closely with the ASOIF Olympic and Multi-Sports Games Consultative Group (AOMSG) and the IOC Sports Department and will also closely consult with each IF on their expectations for the Games’ delivery throughout the preparations.

During the report from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), ASOIF member federations were informed about the preparations for the Dakar 2022 Youth Olympic Games, strengthening the solidarity funding model for athletes, and the IOC’s Gender Equality Project. Based on the recommendations from the project, ASOIF has proposed to establish a new advisory group which will specifically focus on the topics of gender equality and diversity.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) updated the General Assembly about the latest status of the investigations related to Russia, ongoing governance reforms within the organisation as well as WADA’s work on a strong Compliance Monitoring Program and the 2021 Code and International Standards framework.

The General Assembly also approved the Olympic revenue distribution model for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations’ (ASOIF) Olympic and Multi-Sports Games Consultative Group (AOMSG) held its first meeting of 2017 and top of the agenda was the International Federations’ (IFs) increasing role in the preparations of Olympic Games as well as Youth Olympic Games.

In the light of Olympic Agenda 2020, the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) strategic roadmap for the Olympic Movement, IFs are required to be more involved in the planning and delivery of the Olympic competitions, including the transfer of some technical responsibilities from the Olympic Games Organising Committees (OCOGs) to the IFs.

This comes after a number of IFs expressed concern over venue standards during the run-up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. In April 2016, the gymnastics federation, FIG, held its Rio test event and concerns were raised over power outages, the scoring system and missing equipment at a temporary training venue.

The ultimate goal is to better utilise IFs’ growing events expertise and thereby ensure seamless organisation and a reduction of costs of the Olympic Games, for instance when it comes to venue design and development or the integration of IF workforce personnel into the OCOG.  

IOC experts joined in the AOMSG meeting to update the group on the preparations for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) to be held next year in Buenos Aires and about future plans for the development of the event.

During a detailed review of the YOG concept last year, driven by Olympic Agenda 2020, IFs gave important feedback on their experience with the first two summer YOG editions.

The IOC will deliver a report to all ASOIF members during a dedicated working meeting in Lausanne in April.