The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has revealed the makeup of its two Future Host Commissions, which are set to play a pivotal role in the awarding of future Olympic Games.
The commissions are part of what the IOC described as a more "targeted, streamlined and flexible approach" in the selection process for host cities. There will also be increased flexibility in the timing of the final selections.
Both of the commissions are made up of a mixture of IOC members, athletes and representatives of the International Paralympic Committee. They are also gender-balanced: five female members and five male members for the Summer Games, and four female members and four male members for the Winter Games (to view the full list of names,
click here for the IOC website.
The two Future Host Commissions (Summer and Winter) will make recommendations to the IOC Executive Board, which in turn will make recommendations to the IOC Session.
Kristin Kloster Aasen from Norway will chair the Summer commission, while Octavian Morariu from Romania has been named chair of the Winter group.
“There will be a two-speed progression for the work of the Commissions," said IOC president Thomas Bach.
"The Winter Commissions will start immediately, as the priority at this moment is the discussions about the Winter Youth Olympic Games 2024 and the Olympic Winter Games 2030.
"The Summer Commission has slightly more time to enter into a dialogue with the number of various interested cities, regions and countries we have already."
It is the latest move to make the hosting the Olympic Games more appealing to cities, as the IOC has had to deal with a sharp decline in countries willing to bid to host the Games.
The latest selection process for a host city – which concluded in June 2019 with Italy's Milan-Cortina elected to host the 2026 winter Olympics – was one of the most troubled bidding processes of any Olympic Games.
Seven cities had officially entered the bidding process in September 2017 – Milan, Stockholm, Calgary (Canada), Erzurum (Turkey), Sapporo (Japan), Graz (Austria) and Sion (Switzerland) – but failure to win over the support of local populations and governments saw five candidates pull out of the race.
At times, it seemed that there might be no bids at all, as both Stockholm and Milan experienced difficulties in securing support locally.
It followed a similar lack of interest for the bidding process for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. An issue the IOC decided to solve by awarding the Games to Los Angeles, which had originally planned a bid for the 2024 Games.
