London, April 25 Following the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games due to the coronavirus pandemic, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that it will adopt a flexible approach to the election cycles of National Olympic Committees (NOC).
Most NOCs hold their elections in the year after the Games, with Presidents and Executive Committee members serving four-year terms at a time. Organisations were subsequently set to vote on their leadership in 2021.
However, after the coronavirus pandemic forced the postponement of the Olympics and Paralympics to July 23 to August, 2021 and August 24 to September 5, 2021 respectively, this cannot happen.
To help them address this challenge and considering that the main priority is to enable the NOCs to best prepare their respective teams for the Olympic Games, the IOC will let the NOCs decide, subject to their respective statutes, either to follow the four-year term of office or to follow the Olympic Games cycle and hold their elections after the Olympic Games in 2021, under certain conditions.
The IOC will consent to an extension of the initial term of office beyond four years.
The IOC has also increased Olympic Solidarity funds for exceptional Games-related costs incurred by NOCs due to the postponement of Tokyo 2020 from $46.7m to $57m.
This additional budget of $10.3m will allow Olympic Solidarity to make available additional funds relating to exceptional Games-related costs incurred by NOCs due to the postponement of the Tokyo Games, stated the IOC.
( With inputs from IANS )