Geneva: September promises to be an important month in the history of the Olympic Movement, with three key decisions scheduled to be made during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, over the next few days.
The full IOC membership is set to elect the host city for the 2020 Olympic Games Sep 7, decide on the composition of the 2020 Olympic programme the following day, and elect the next IOC President, Sep 10.
The action gets under way with a meeting of the IOC Executive Board, Sep 4 and 5.
President Jacques Rogge, who will retire after 12 years in office following the Session, will give a press conference after his last board meeting, scheduled for Sep 5.
The Session (full IOC membership) opens on the evening of 6 September with an official ceremony at Buenos Aires' famous opera house, the Teatro Colon.
The three candidate cities bidding to host the 2020 Olympic Games - Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid - will deliver their final presentations to the session, Sep 7, before the vote. The host city will be announced during a ceremony from 5 to 5.30 p.m.
The composition of the 2020 Olympic program will be discussed on the morning of Sep 8, with decisions on the core sports expected at around 10.15 a.m. and the possible inclusion of an additional sport at noon.
Baseball/softball, squash and wrestling have been shortlisted and proposed by the IOC Executive Board for possible inclusion as an additional sport on the 2020 Olympic program. They will deliver short presentations to the session ahead of the vote.
On the afternoon of Sep 8, the session will hear reports about the preparations for future editions of the Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games. The organising committees and respective IOC Coordination Commission Chairs for Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, PyeongChang 2018 and for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing 2014 and in Lillehammer 2016 will update the IOC members about the ongoing work and progress made in the host cities.
Sep 9, the IOC Session will receive reports from IOC commissions, the IOC administration, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
On the final day of its meeting in Buenos Aires, Sep 10, the IOC members will elect their new President, the ninth in the history of the Olympic Movement, as well as vote on one new vice-president, one new member of the IOC Executive Board, and nine proposed new members and honorary members.
The six presidential candidates vying to succeed Jacques Rogge are Thomas Bach, Sergey Bubka, Richard Carrion, Ng Ser Miang, Denis Oswald, and Wu Ching-Kuo. The announcement of the new IOC President is scheduled for 12.30 p.m.
