The IOC on Monday for the first time publicly admitted that votes for the Olympic and Paralympic Games "may have been bought" by former IAAF President Lamine Diack. In a statement, the IOC Exec Board said that it had taken "immediate action" regarding votes for host cities of the Games in the past. It comes after Brazilian Olympic Committee President Carlos Nuzman was taken into custody last Tuesday "under suspicion of involvement in a vote-buying scheme" (INSIDE THE GAMES, 9/11).
The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics are "barely an afterthought for most South Koreans, with slow local ticket sales amid the biggest political scandal in years and a torrent of North Korean weapons tests." South Korea wants "more than a million spectators for the Games" and expects 70% to be locals. During the first phase of ticket sales between February and June, locals purchased 52,000 tickets. South Korean Olympic organizers reopened online ticket sales on Sept. 5 and "hope for a late surge in domestic ticket sales as the Games draw closer." Locals purchased "nearly 17,000 tickets on the first two days of resumed sales" (AP, 9/11).
Dozens of environmental groups "sharply criticized organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Monday for alleged exploitation of tropical rain forests," claiming this was also potentially fueling human rights violations. In an open letter to the IOC, 47 non-governmental organizations, including Greenpeace, said that there was "mounting evidence the Tokyo Games were using timber through companies associated with illegal logging and human and labor rights violations." They added that organizers "had not been transparent about the sourcing of the wood used in construction projects for the Games" (REUTERS, 9/11).
