In its "bid to make hosting the Olympics more enticing, and to avoid potentially difficult choices -- off to Kazakhstan or back to Beijing in 2022? -- the IOC basically has become a salesman in an expensive suit asking, 'How can we help you walk away with an Olympics today?'" according to Juliet Macur of the N.Y. TIMES. IOC President Thomas Bach said that the 40 reform proposals the IOC announced Tuesday -- which "included changes to the bid process and an Olympic digital channel that could give Olympic sports broader exposure online -- show that the organization is just trying to keep up with the changing times and protect its brand." Bach: "Reforms have to happen when you are in the driver’s seat. If you are hit by problems, then you are no longer in the driver’s seat and lose your leadership. So the moment to change is now." Macur writes Bach is "right" in that the Olympics "aren't dying." But it is "hard to say the Games are thriving when several promising bid cities have turned away from the process as if the Olympics were toxic." Bach "has already done more for the Olympic movement than the previous few IOC presidents combined." He said that the bidding process under the new reform "would have fewer demands and more suggestions, making it friendlier and less expensive" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/20). IOC VP John Coates said that the Olympics "must modernise its program or risk losing relevance to younger generations." Coates: “We have to find a way of being able to introduce new sports that are relevant to young people" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 11/20).
