International Olympic committee

See also: CIO

The International Olympic committee is an organization created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1894, to re-establish old the Olympic Games of the ancient Greece, then to organize this sports event every four years. It is an governmental organization with nonlucrative goal whose name is often shortened in CIO.

History

In Paris, the June 23rd 1894, fence of the first Olympic congress, the baron Pierre de Coubertin founds the International Olympic committee in order to make revive old the Olympic Games after an absence of more than 1500 years. He wanted to thus contribute to build a peaceful world by means of the sport by promoting the communication, the fair play and the agreement between the people. The CIO is an organization of which the goal is to locate the administration and the authority for the plays, as to provide only one legal entity which holds all the rights and the marks. For example the Olympic logo, the flag, the currency and the Olympic anthem all are managed and had by the CIO. The president of the Olympic committee represents the CIO as a whole, and the members of the CIO represent the CIO in their respective countries.

Operation

The CIO is composed of 115 members who meet at least once per annum, and elect a president for one 8 years duration. The members all are of the natural persons. The CIO includes in particular among its members, of the active athletes, of former athletes, as well as presidents or leaders with the more high level of international federations of sports, international organizations recognized by the CIO. The CIO recruits and elects its members among the personalities which he considers qualified. Financial means comes on the one hand rebroadcast rights televised and on the other hand partnerships with multinationals.

The head office of the CIO is located at Lausanne in Suisse.

The presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch (1980 with 2001) saw an explosion of the televised rights and sponsorship of the Plays. In December 1998, bursts the corruption scandal which surrounded the designation of Salt Lake City like organizing city of the Winter Olympics of 2002.

The CIO, supreme authority of the Olympic Movement, indicates at its sessions the hosts cities for the Olympic Games of winter like summer. The election of the city host requires the absolute majority of the votes cast. So with a given turn, no city obtains the absolute majority of the votes cast, a new turn is carried out by eliminating the city having received less voice. At the time of the last turn if it is necessary, the two finalists are convened to attend the end result of the vote. The vote is secret and the right to vote the members of the CIO do not have having same nationality as a city still in string.

Olympic currency

Citius-Altius-Fortius
Latin expression meaning more quickly, higher, more extremely . Coubertin adopted it after having intended to speak the Father Henri Didon. The Didon Father used this expression to describe the athletic exploits of his students in the Albert-the-Large college of Arcueil, of which he was headmaster, where this Latin expression is engraved in the stone above the main entrance.

The Olympic creed

" Most important with the Olympic Games is not to gain but take part, because the important thing in the life it is not the triumph but the combat; essence, it is not to have overcome but to be itself well battu".
It is about current form of the creed such as it appears on the display panel to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Pierre de Coubertin began again then adopted this creed after having heard the sermon of the bishop of Pennsylvania, Ethelbert Talbot, having pronounced with the cathedral Saint-Paul on July 19th 1908, during the Plays of IVe Olympiade to London. The exact words of Talbot were: " The important thing in these Olympiads is not so much there to gain to take part" there;.

Olympic Oath

" In the name of all the competitors, I promise that we will take part in these Olympic Games by complying with and following the rules which govern them, in a spirit of sportivity, for the glory of the sport and the honor of our équipes". Written by Coubertin, the oath is pronounced by an athlete of the country host holding the side of the Olympic flag of its left hand. A judge of the country host also pronounces an oath from which the statement is slightly different. It is the Belgian fencer Victor Boin which pronounced the Olympic oath for the first time in 1920 with Antwerp.

Olympic flame

The Olympic flame is a symbol which comes us from the Olympic Games of antiquity during which a crowned flame burned permanently on the furnace bridge of Zeus. The flame was lit for the first time at the Plays of IXe Olympiade in 1928 with Amsterdam then again during the Plays of Xe Olympiad in 1932 with Los Angeles. In 1936, Carl Diem, president of the Steering Committee of the Plays of XIe Olympiad to Berlin, proposed to light the flame into old Olympie and to transport it to Berlin via a relay of the torch. Its idea was carried out and the tradition since then remains. The flame is lit in the antique Olympic stadium with Olympie in the Greek area of the Peloponnese. The flame is lit during a ceremony by women vêtues of tunics similar to those carried by the Greeks of antiquity. The flame is lit naturally by the rays of the sun with Olympie, reflected using a parabolic mirror, and the large priestess gives then the torch to the first relay runner.

Olympic Anthem

Cantata of Kostís Palamás. Setting in music by Spyros Samaras in 1896. Adoptee like official Olympic anthem by the CIO in 1957.

List presidents of the Olympic committee

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