OLYMPIC GAMES

Like the great white shark in Jaws 2 or Bridget Jones in The Edge of Reason, Olympic Agenda 2020 is back - and this time it's, well, repetitive and mildly perplexing.

THE EXECUTIVE BOARD (EB) OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC) HAS PROPOSED A NEW STRATEGIC ROADMAP, OLYMPIC AGENDA 2020+5, TO THE UPCOMING IOC SESSION. IT CONSISTS OF 15 RECOMMENDATIONS. THE NEW ROADMAP FOLLOWS OLYMPIC AGENDA 2020 AND WILL GUIDE THE WORK OF THE IOC AND THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. OLYMPIC AGENDA 2020+5 WILL BE SUBMITTED TO THE IOC MEMBERS FOR DISCUSSION AND ADOPTION AT THE 137^TH IOC SESSION IN MARCH THIS YEAR. THE TITLE, OLYMPIC AGENDA 2020+5, HAS BEEN CHOSEN TO REFLECT THE FACT THAT THIS NEW ROADMAP IS THE SUCCESSOR TO OLYMPIC AGENDA 2020 AND WILL GUIDE THE WORK OF THE IOC AND THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT UNTIL 2025.

The Italian National Olympic Committee will "never" ask for its athletes to be vaccinated before others in the country in order to compete at the re-scheduled Tokyo 2020 Games, its President, Giovanni Malagò, has insisted.

IOC President Thomas Bach held consultation calls with the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) on Friday, as the Olympic Movement enters the final stretch in the preparations for the postponed Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, and the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.