download - IOA

ernments, but to my mind it is not the business of sportsmen although independently
they may have their views and it is up to them to make up their
minds with regard to what they do.
Another point which I think you may wish to talk about is Regional Games,
which in many cases get the patronage of the International Olympic Committee
and they like it.
The Regional Games enable many people who have not reached the Olympic
Games to have their sports, it also enables certain sports which should never
be in the Olympic Games programme to be included because of the regional
basis and I believe, generally, that these games are very welcomed and the
IOC is only too happy to give its patronage as long as the Games are run in
accordance with the Olympic principles. The programme of the Olympic
Games is continually under review and we have more and more sports
knocking at the door. I think the principal ones at the moment as sports are
tennis, badminton and table tennis and others may be included on the programme.
Now, the Munich Organising Committee decided that all twenty one sports
should be on the programme. I believe this was a mistake, because it means
that every city in the future feels it must ask the minimum or the maximum
and even a little more if it wishes to get the Games, and this is where the
International Federations must play an important part.
But, ladies and gentlemen, in many ways such a practice is unfair and increases
the expense if certain sports - I am not talking about the basic sports -
are not played in that country, because the basic facilities do not exist or
because the national federation is weak. In such a case, you are going towards
increasing costs. The reason the Olympic Games are such is because they are
successful, and although they get many knocks and many criticisms, remember
that most go on extremely smoothly and extremely happily. Further
of course with the increase of people there are increasing problems of accommodation
and the Olympic village has its importance in bringing people
together. The village is basically one of the important centres for the whole
Olympic idea and to my mind it is something to which we should give very
careful thought and study for the future. I believe that the village in Moscow
which I visited will be one of the best even from the facilities point of view
because there are very small apartment houses with two or three rooms and
in most cases there will be two athletes in a room. Now, there are two
International bodies in which the IOC has connections, there is UNESCO
and you have read a paper on Unesco, but UNESCO or some element in
Unesco wishes to take over all sport and the non - governmental bodies are
very strong. They are not capable of doing this, but considered their policy on
46