For the man who won 13 Grand Slam singles titles, Roger Federer, winning an Olympic gold medal in Beijing helped him to forget a difficult first part of the year. On 16 August 2008, the Swiss tennis player added an Olympic gold medal to his collection by winning the men's doubles with Stanislas Wawrinka. “It's a magical moment. Something incredible in my career," said Federer. “It has definitively inspired me. It helped me to stay positive and be motivated for the US Open and not maybe be too disappointed.” Which turned out to be exactly right as, a few weeks later, Federer won his fifth consecutive US Open title.

In 1992, at the age of 11, Federer watched Marc Rosset win a tennis gold medal at the Barcelona Games. This victory perhaps brought out this desire to take part in the Olympic tournament, which brought together the best players of the time. At his first Games, in Sydney in 2000, he missed the Olympic podium by one step, but met his girlfriend of eight years. Four years later, in Athens, he was the flag-bearer of the Swiss delegation, but exited the tournament prematurely. In 2008 in Beijing, he carried the Swiss flag for the second time while celebrating his 27th birthday. “To carry the flag is one of the achievements you only dream about. It was one of the great moments in my career,” said the man considered as the greatest player of all time, before adding, “The Olympic Games is like Wimbledon to me. It’s really a dream come true to be part of it, walking into the stadium at the Opening Ceremony”.

 

Roger Federer is among the stars of the IOC campaign entitled “Heroes”, along with other legendary Olympic athletes including Yao Ming, Laure Manaudou, Liu Xiang, Yelena Isinbayeva, Kenenisa Bekele, Vanessa Ferrari and Carolina Kluft. All these athletes are superheroes seeking to achieve the seemingly impossible. “Heroes” leverages the determination and performance of Olympic athletes to communicate the key Olympic values. “Heroes” forms part of the IOC’s promotional campaign entitled “The Best of Us” - a simple, powerful idea that transcends cultures and borders, motivating young people around the world to participate in sport by proving that sport can bring out the best in them. The campaign was launched in 2007 and continues to run after the Beijing Games.

 

Thousands of readers followed the Beijing Olympic Games with the “Olympic Express” e-journal on www.olympic.org. Feedback from young people, parents and teachers has been overwhelming. The project proved to be adequate for these target groups. The platform of the Olympic Games allowed us to reach out to people often difficult to attain. Another educational project, the so-called “A quote a day” interviews with IOC President Rogge, was followed on www.olympic.org and on TV as part of the daily 30-minute highlights issued by the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting unit. President Rogge explained in each one of the modules the meaning of Olympic symbols, the importance of the different players in the Olympic Movement and his own role and responsibilities.

 

Olympic Express will be an integral part of www.olympic.org until the end of September. The content of the 49 different editions – each with eight pages of interactive content- allows readers to get acquainted with all Olympic summer sports and to relive the Beijing Games in a very special way. Adapted to 8 to 12 year-olds, Olympic Express also enables them to get acquainted with Chinese culture and to discover how the Chinese experienced the Games. 

 

 Discover the Olympic Express

 

A quote a day will be integrated in the educational section of www.olympic.org. The President’s explanations are an attractive pedagogical means to get young people in schools acquainted with Olympism. Olympic Express and the “Quote a day” project are part of an overall effort by the IOC to reach out to young people with well-adapted means and tools. The web site remains an excellent platform for this. 

 

 Discover the "A quote a day" interviews

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced the composition of the Evaluation Commission which will visit the four Candidate Cities bidding to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The team will be headed by Nawal El Moutawakel, who chaired the Evaluation Commission for the 2012 Olympic Games bid process. Her team, composed of representatives from the Olympic Movement as well as a number of advisors, will analyse the candidature files of the four bidding cities - Chicago (USA), Tokyo (Japan), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Madrid (Spain)  - due for submission to the IOC by 12 February 2009.  The Commission will, in addition, make on-site inspections around the second quarter of 2009 before then issuing a comprehensive technical appraisal for IOC members one month before they elect the host city on 2 October 2009 during the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen. This appraisal, known as the IOC Evaluation Commission report, is also made available for the general public and other interested parties on www.olympic.org

The composition of the Commission is as follows:

The Commission will also comprise an ANOC representative, still to be appointed, and advisors.

Commenting on the announcement, IOC President Jacques Rogge said: "The Evaluation Commission plays an important role in assessing the Candidate Cities' ability to host the Olympic Games. We have here a professional team with a wide range of knowledge and experience. I would like to thank Nawal El Moutawakel for accepting to lead it. Nawal did an excellent job as chairwoman of the Evaluation Commission of the 2012 Candidate Cities. As an Olympic champion,  a newly elected member of the IOC Executive Board and Sports Minister in Morocco she will bring an invaluable contribution to the Commission."

Commenting on her appointment, Nawal El Moutawakel said: ‘I feel privileged to chair for the second time an Evaluation Commission and am grateful to the IOC President for his trust and support. The team will have the complex and exciting task to evaluate the potential of four highly capable Candidate Cities. Our role will be to assess their technical capabilities in a transparent and neutral way in order to provide IOC members with the information they need to guide their choice on 2 October 2009. I rely on the valuable experience of my colleagues and look forward to taking on this challenge.”

[1] Cities are listed in the order of drawing of lots.

Note to the editor: Olympic champion in the 400m hurdles at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, Nawal El Moutawakel was the first Moroccan athlete to win a gold medal. Her outstanding sporting career and her dedication to sport led her to become a member of the IAAF Council in 1995; Secretary of State, responsible for Youth and Sport, to the Minister of Social Affairs in Morocco in 1997 and Minister of Sports in 2007. She has been an IOC member since 1998 and was elected member of the IOC Executive Board this summer in Beijing.

For more information please contact the IOC Media Relations team on +41 21 621 6000, email: pressoffice@olympic.org

Lausanne, the Olympic Capital and host city of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and more than 20 International Sports Federations, is organising, from 9 to 11 October 2008, the first Summit for Olympic Host Cities. “For each successful edition of the Olympic Games, there has been a strong host city at its core. The Lausanne Summit is the first ever gathering of these Olympic cities, where experiences will be shared to build the platform for the future”, explained Lausanne’s mayor, Daniel Brélaz.

More than 30 cities participating

The Summit will bring together the cities who have organised, will organise, or are considering organising, the Olympic or Youth Olympic Games, both summer and winter. More than 30 cities have already confirmed their participation - a great success and clear sign of the interest in this initiative, which is primarily based on knowledge transfer.

IOC President: “Perfect platform”

The International Olympic Committee backs this initiative as part of its knowledge transfer strategy.  "The IOC is committed to ensuring that a city understands, as early as possible, the importance of integrating the Olympic Games into its long-term urban development strategy, in order to leave the best possible urban and sporting legacy to the country, the city and its entire community. This is why the IOC supports the first Lausanne Summit and the General Assembly of the World Union of Olympic Cities, which will be the perfect platform to share and exchange information and knowledge”, said IOC President Jacques Rogge.

Prestigious speakers

The City of Lausanne has succeeded in signing up prestigious keynote speakers for this first Summit. Simon Anholt, the world’s leading specialist in creating brand strategies for countries, cities and regions, will give a keynote speech about how sports events can be used to help a host build its own competitive identity. Michael Knight, former Minister of the Olympics for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, will be joining the impressive list of keynote speakers. He will be addressing the Lausanne Summit on the topic of socio-political opportunities related to hosting the Olympic Games. Gilbert Felli, Olympic Games Executive Director at the IOC, will explain how the bidding, planning and staging of the Olympic Games has changed over the last 10 years.

At the invitation of the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, stakeholders of the Olympic Movement met today in Lausanne to discuss current European Union (EU) matters. All participants agreed to work together on a detailed definition of the specificity and the autonomy of sport, which needs to be further clarified with regard to the wording on sport in the Lisbon Treaty.

After the meeting, Jacques Rogge said: "It is important that the Sports Movement works in unity to defend and promote its values and structures - also in the European context. This is crucial when we base ourselves on the existing Declaration on Sport annexed to the Nice Treaty, but also when we think in terms of the future and the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, which would give sport a legal basis in the EU for the first time. I am glad to see that today the IOC, the European Olympic Committees (EOC), the International Federations (IF) with their representatives from summer and winter sports, the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) as well as the football world with FIFA and UEFA came together to speak with one voice."

List of participants in the meeting:

IOC / EOC

Jacques Rogge, IOC President

Mario Pescante, IOC Executive Board member and Chairman of the IOC International Relations Commission

Patrick Hickey, IOC member and EOC President

Guy Drut, IOC member and EOC Executive Committee member

Kai Holm, IOC member and EOC Executive Committee member

AIOWF

René Fasel, IOC Executive Board member and IIHF and AIOWF President

Yves Vonlanthen, IIHF Administration and Legal Manager

ASOIF

Andrew Ryan, ASOIF Director

GAISF

Hein Verbruggen, IOC Honorary Member and GAISF President

FIBA / FIBA-Europe

Patrick Baumann, IOC member and FIBA Secretary General

George Vassilakopoulos, President of FIBA–Europe

FIFA

Jérôme Champagne, FIFA Director of International Relations

IRB

Bernard Lapasset, IRB President

Darren Bailey, IRB Director of Legal Services

UEFA

Gianni Infantino, UEFA Deputy General Secretary

William Gaillard, UEFA Director of Communications and Public Affairs

CNOSF

Jean-Paul Clémençon, Chief of Staff - CNOSF