IOC President Thomas Bach chairs executive board meeting in Mumbai

MUMBAI: International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach is chairing the Executive board meeting of IOC that got underway at the Jio World Convention Centre, in Mumbai.

The main topic of the decision during the event will be regarding host cities for upcoming events, inclusion or exclusion of sports and federations and changes in the Olympic Charter are made at the IOC Sessions.

These sessions are held by the IOC's supreme organ and decisions made at these meetings are final. More than 600 members of the sporting world's elite are attending this IOC session in Mumbai.

These include 99 voting members and 43 honorary members, representing a diverse range of sports. The Russian Olympic Committee's (ROC) recognition of entities from illegally annexed Ukrainian territories and the sports programme for Los Angeles 2028 are also agenda items for this meeting.

The Executive Board, founded in 1921, consists of the IOC President, four Vice-Presidents and ten other members. All the members of the Executive Board are elected by the session, by secret ballot, by a majority of votes cast, for a four-year term. The Executive Board will study the report from the Olympic Programme Commission covering Los Angeles 2028's proposal to add cricket, baseball and softball, flag football, lacrosse and squash to the Games in five years' time.

If approved, it would mark a symbolic return to the Olympics for cricket for the first time since Paris 1900. In the past, a total of 140 IOC Sessions have been conducted since 1894.

This is the second time the Executive board meeting has been held in India. Earlier it was held in Delhi in 1983. India secured the hosting rights for the IOC session when a delegation, headed by Nita Ambani presented the country's case at the 139th IOC session in Beijing in February 2022.

Given Mumbai's intrinsic connection to Indian sports and the country's Olympic history, the port city promises to be the perfect stage for yet another ground-breaking IOC session. Earlier, IOC chief Thomas Bach met with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai. IOC member Nita Ambani was also present during the meeting.

The Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assured the IOC officials that the state will provide complete support to the Olympic Association.

On Monday, the IOC with the Olympic Museum aligned with Reliance Foundation to build on the success of the Olympic Values Education Programme (OVEP) in India and signed a new cooperation agreement.

This underscored the organisations' shared priority to promote Olympic values through sport among young people.