IOC President Thomas Bach suggested Friday that the golf venue for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics "may have to be changed if the scheduled golf club fails to offer full membership to women." Bach: "The (IOC) executive board ... made it very clear again that the Olympic Games are about non-discrimination in every respect." Bach said that the IOC "would approve the venue if the club decides to change its discriminatory rule" (KYODO, 3/17).
Organizers of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games said Friday that they "launched cooperation projects with their neighbors who are also preparing to host future Olympics." PyeongChang has agreed with Tokyo, host of the 2020 Summer Olympics, and Beijing, which will stage the 2022 Winter Games, to "cooperate in two major areas: the efficient preparations of their respective Olympic Games and the promotion of the Olympic Movement" (YONHAP, 3/17).
Bach said that PyeongChang has "done such a great job" in its preparations that he does not "see real challenges." He noted PyeongChang's "very good progress," especially thanks to the "successful organization of Olympic test events in a wide range of sports such as alpine skiing, figure skating, biathlon and cross-country skiing" (YONHAP, 3/17).
The IOC announced that Kenya's national Olympic committee "escaped the threat of suspension after failing to adopt a new constitution but funding will continue to be withheld until further notice." IOC Deputy Dir General Pere Miro said that a Kenyan undertaking to "bring in the new constitution at a meeting later this month meant the IOC had stayed the threat of further action" (AFP, 3/19).
