Outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach praised India’s first Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra for promoting Olympic Value Education Programme (OVEP) during the historic IOC session on Wednesday.
Bach mentioned the Olympic shooter while taking the names of various Commissions at the Greece City resort, with the all-important election set to take place on Thursday.
“We have an Olympic education commission with the chair, Mrs Mikaela Cojuangco Jaworski. Also a written report. Are there questions? I think there we all should digest the huge numbers of the OVEP program,” Bach said.
“Not only, but in particular in India. Thanks also to our friend Abhinav Bindra. But worldwide, where we can think finally, thanks to your drive and your efforts and one of your commission members that we can feel that the OVEP program is really gaining ground.”
Bindra has played a significant role through OVEP by joining hands with Chandigarh administration to implement the programme.
The IOC launched the OVEP in India in May 2022, with the Olympism-themed curriculum integrated into the school education system in Odisha.
Meanwhile, Olympism 365 Commission Chair Auvita Rapilla, later mentioned its programme in rural India.
“When launched in 2021, IOC’s Olympism 365 strategy was an idea. It has been translated into concrete action and impact. Young people and their communities across the world are benefitting from the values sport can nurture,” she said.
“…like the young women in Samoa or in Mexico or India with IOC working with ground breaking social enterprises to produce sustainable bamboo table tennis table and delivering scope for community development programme in rural areas. These are just three of hundreds of community programmes.”
Later, the Future Host Commission presented a report, which will recommend the 2036 Olympic host to the IOC Executive Board.
“Now we have the future host commission. There we have for the Games of the Olympiad the written report by the chair Mrs. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. Are there questions? Some may want to know the result for 2036 or 2040 or 2044,” Bach said in a lighter note.
“I think we have good news for you and we have bad news for you. The good news is we have a two-digit number of interested parties for the upcoming Games. And the bad news for you is that we have a two-digit number of interested parties for the next Olympics.
“So good luck then for this great endeavour and congratulations on how you have managed this procedure so far with sometimes some pretty impatient interested parties. But this shows your great diplomatic skills, how you have approached this.”