In an exclusive interview with the official website of the
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on the occasion of the one-year
countdown to the event, President of the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) Jacques Rogge looked back at the important events
of the Olympic Movement, touched on its reform and anti-doping
campaign, expressed his best wishes and anticipations for the
upcoming Olympics, and for the volunteers and visitors of the
official website.
Making sure the Olympics remain the dream of future
generations
In July 2001, Moscow witnessed a significant historic event for
both China and Rogge: There, Beijing won the right to hold the 2008
Games, and Rogge took over Antonio Samaranch's seat as IOC's eighth
president. Six years have passed and now Beijing is bracing for the
next year's event, while Mr. Rogge is leading the IOC in a new era
of development.
The IOC President Jacques
Rogge visits the Beijing No. 4 High School on August 6, 2007.
Speaking of the challenges facing the IOC, he said: "what you
have to do is to make sure that the Olympic Games remain the dream
of future generations. This is easy to say, but not easy to do. And
we must make sure that it remains a dream. It has to remain the
number one event in sport. It has to remain something that all
young people aspire to. And this takes a lot of work."
The Modern Olympic Games has been around for more than 100
years, and now it has become a global sports and cultural event. In
Rogge's opinion, the most important period was 1960 Rome Games
where television came for the first time. "This has led to a far
bigger audience than before, and this in turn has generated a lot
of extra revenue for the Olympic movement."
He went on in length to review the reforms that have taken place
in recent years: "We have tried to limit the size, the complexity,
and also the gigantism of the Olympic Games, and therefore we have
set a limit of 28 sports, of 10,500 athletes, and also we have
taken 170 different measures that are slowly being implemented now,
and we will come to about 100% of these measures in Beijing, and
this will ensure that in the future the Games are better organized
and also that they are affordable for more cities in the world,
that not only big and rich cities can organize them, but also
mid-size cities."
Responding to the question if that means that developing
countries will have more opportunities to host the Games, he said:
"Yes absolutely. This is what we want to have and we are sure that
this is going to bring out very good results in the future."
He said IOC "definitely would love to see the continents that
have not yet organized the Games like Africa or Latin America do
that in the future." "I cannot tell you exactly when, but I will
see it in my life I hope, and I think that there will be Games in
these continents."
Doping has been a chronic problem hampering the development of
the Olympic Movement. At the beginning of this year Mr. Rogge said
one of his wishes for the year is to make further advances in
eliminating doping cases. Assessing the results obtained thus far,
he said progress has been made. "We are preparing a very strong
anti-doping campaign in Beijing with our friends from BOCOG. We
will have not less than 4,500 tests, which is about 1000 tests more
than we had in Athens, and we have a very, very strong zero
tolerance policy with that," he added.
Since August 2001, when Rogge visited Beijing for the first time
as IOC president to watch the World University Games, he has been
to Beijing several times. Speaking of his impressions of the
development of Beijing over the past years, he said every time he
lands in Beijing, he doesn't recognize the city.
"Each time it's a new city. This is a city now with splendid
sports venues; this is a city where the transportation system is
vastly improved. It's also a city that will have a new airport;
it's a city that also is far better in terms of pollution and
environment than it was before. There's still some work to do but
there is major progress, so it's a new city and that is in fact the
greatest legacy of the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games are about
much more than just a sports competition. They really reshape the
face of a city," he commented.
He further elaborated his views on venue construction, saying
the IOC wants it "definitely to leave a positive and sustainable
legacy for the Olympic Games," instead of building venues that are
too big, or "white elephants." "The venues that are built for the
Games must be adapted to their post-Games use," "that is the
philosophy that we have to respect."
He said Beijing and BOCOG "are doing the excellent work" in
preparing for the Olympics and "the collaboration between the two
is absolutely excellent. Everything is being implemented according
to schedule and deadline. The only advice I could give is to learn
as much as possible from the test events and to implement these
lessons in the last operational phase until the real Olympic
Games."
On the occasion of the one-year countdown to the Beijing Games,
the IOC will be mailing out invitations from Beijing to various
national and regional Olympic committees (NOCs). Previously, IOC
has done this at its headquarters in Lausanne. Rogge said this time
IOC acts this way just "because we want to put Beijing at the
center of this ceremony and it is better to send it from Beijing
since people will come to Beijing."
In Rogge's sports career, he was an excellent yacht sailor and a
member of the Belgian rugby team. Talking about his love of sports,
he said sports has shaped his life as a young kid and as an Olympic
athlete, "and it is still shaping my life now as a sports
administrator, so sport has been a constant passion in my life.
Once you get this passion you cannot lose it; it's impossible; it's
too strong; it's too good." He said his family members support him
very much in that and they all love sport.
Turning to the volunteer work of the 2008 Games, the president
said he wished the volunteers the best of luck: "Tell them this is
going to be an exciting adventure and that if they have the
privilege to go to Beijing, then their dream will come true."
He thought passion is very important for volunteers: "I think
the tens of thousands of volunteers who will participate in the
Olympic Games will be rewarded not by money but by fulfilling their
passion and by fulfilling their dream and ultimately, by realizing
the dream of China. It's the same for me as a volunteer in the
International Olympic committee--I'm rewarded when sport is
progressing."
Mr. Rogge expressed his great interest for the Beijing Olympics
official website and supported the two recent web campaigns, the
"Olympic Families Tour Beijing" contest, and recruitment of 2008
Honorary Visitors of the website. He wished the ten families who
won the opportunity to visit Beijing "the best of luck and tell
them this is going to be an exciting adventure and that if they
have the privilege to go to Beijing then their dream will come
true. "
Accepting the website's invitation to be in the Honorary
Visitors' list, Mr. Rogge said: "I thank you very much I'm very
honored by this distinction. To all the visitors I would say the
best thing that will happen in 2008 is the Beijing Olympic Games.
Watch the website."
(BOCOG August 7, 2007)
