As the chief operating officer of the Baku 2015 European Games, Simon Clegg is tasked with the successful delivery of the inaugural event. From June 12-18, Baku will host 6,000 athletes from 50 countries as they compete in the multi-sport event. Clegg, who spent 20 years with the British Olympic Association, 12 of which he served as the organization's CEO, led the campaign to persuade the mayor of London and the British government to bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. He took positions as a board member for both the bid committee and local organizing committee in the lead-up to the event. Clegg spoke to SBD Global about London 2012, language barriers and the future of the new European Games.
On his former role with the BOA ...
Simon Clegg: Obviously, that has given me an insight in terms of the highest level of management on an international scale, and that’s obviously equipped me well for dealing with the particular challenges of being the chief operating officer of the organizing committee here. We’ve got a staff now of 1,900 full-time staff -- 440 expats drawn from 43 different nations. So we are a truly global and international team responsible for delivering this event.
On challenges ...
Clegg: The challenge is of operating in an environment where I don’t speak the native language here in Azerbaijan, recognizing that 12,000 of our volunteers will be predominantly speaking Azerian, looking at the challenges of this language interface between the senior management, which is mainly speaking English and the local Azerian. And of course the challenge is that this is the inaugural event. This is the first-ever event with no track record or file to refer to. Every system and structure that we’ve put in place we’ve had to make up from scratch.
On his proudest accomplishments ...
Clegg: Up until now, [my proudest accomplishment is] leading the PR and political campaigns to persuade the British government and the mayor of London to bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. Also, the second thing would be leading our most successful Olympic team to Beijing in 100 years to fourth place in the medal table. I was the Chef de Mission at six Olympic Games, so definitely Chef de Mission as well.
On the biggest innovations in the industry ...
Clegg: Thirty years ago I had just finished my first year in high performance sport when I was manager of the British biathlon team and before subsequently then moving to the British Olympic Association. Obviously, I’ve seen massive changes over that time, particularly in terms of the whole commercialization of the Games, but also, I think the breakdown in the way sport is communicated with the public. The emergence of many different television channels, many of whom have got a significant interest in broadcasting sport. I think it’s been very interesting to observe the changes in the media, specifically the written media and how one is now so dependent on having a good social media policy and how we’ve seen the impact of print journalism diminishing over that period of time. I’ve also been amazed to see the further development and advancement of physical sport and actually how far people can push themselves and constantly world records being broken that I thought would stand for many years.
On future European Games ...
Clegg: I’m confident that [the European Olympic Committee] will
announce the host city for 2019 over the coming weeks. I think it will
be very exciting. I’ve described this as the “big bang” moment for the
European Games. And if you’re going to have a big bang moment, then you
want to have it for the inaugural event. We’ve had to fight quite hard
to muscle our way in to what is already a crowded and congested sport
calendar. I have no doubt that the second event will be very different
from the first event, but I am very confident that they will be able to
build on our success and that they will be the huge beneficiary of the
major broadcasting and sponsorship deals that we’ve been able to secure.
On where he sees himself after Baku ...
Clegg: Having a very
good holiday. My main focus at the moment is on delivering this event.
I’m still too young to retire. I’m still ambitious and I think I’ve got
another big challenge ahead of me. What that is, I’m not quite sure yet.
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