123rd International Olympic Committee Session (IOC)

Please note that the IOC is made up of individuals, not countries. Delegations with seats on the committee will be assigned their associated characters in late June.

Sam Pokross, Director

ioc@harvardmun.org

Class Year: 2013

Concentration: Linguistics with Mind, Brain, and Behavior Track (basically a combination of linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience)

Hometown: Newton, MA

Favorite Place: Harvard Yard in the fall

Favorite Food: chocolate and cheese (but not together, of course!)

Favorite MUN Moment: On a crisis committee last year, we had the President of the United States die in Ireland while chasing the pot of the gold at the end of the rainbow. And then his Irish mistress became president. Needless to say, the delegates were very confused!

Why did you choose these topics? These topics will allow you to examine the Olympic movement in very different ways. The gender disparity gets at the heart of the mission of the IOC and balances the economics and the ethics of the Olympics. The selection of the host city for the XXIII Winter Games provides the opportunity for lively debate about the pros and cons of giving the Olympics to each candidate, perhaps the highest honor the international community can bestow upon a city.

HMUN is the best because…it brings together some of the brightest high school minds from around the world. At no other conference can you interact with such a diverse and clever group of students in the country’s intellectual capital. I might be biased because this will be my sixth HMUN, but I think it is the best Model UN conference in the world.

Other thoughts? I am very excited to meet all of you and hear your passionate debate on these topics. I am sure that you will be able to come up with much better solutions that I ever could. Feel free to contact me (spokross@college.harvard.edu) with any questions about this committee or Harvard in general. See you in January.

Topics

Topic A: Gender Disparity

Because the Olympics are the pinnacle of sporting competition, the policies of the International Olympic Committee set a precedence for athletics around the world. The committee’s decision to add or drop a sport from the Olympic program, for ex- ample, can have a significant impact on its international popularity. Many argue that the IOC should use this influence as a way of improving athletic policies throughout the world. Specifically, there has been a strong push in recent years for gender equality in all aspects of the Olympic Games. In terms of the actual sporting events, men have the right to compete in more events and win more medals than women. Immediately before the 2010 Winter Games, a group of female ski jumpers sued the Vancouver Orga- nizing Committee (VOC) for refusing to allow them to compete when the city had already set up a venue for the men. Although they lost the suit and could not compete, the ski jumpers’ lawyers claimed that it is unfair to allow one gender and not the other to participate in an event. In the past, the IOC has argued that because of financial restrictions, it must impose strict rules about the qualifications for a sport to be included in the Olympic Program. The committee must decide whether or not the precedence it could set by fixing the gender disparity in the Olympic program is worth the financial burden.

Additionally, critics claim that the IOC has been slow to respond to the calls for gender reform because of the composition of the committee itself. Fewer than a fourth of the IOC delegates are women, and Executive Board has only one female member. The IOC may have not prioritized the issue of gender because so few of its members have historically been female. The commit- tee will therefore have to discuss reforming not only the sporting events at the Olympics but also the structure of the IOC itself.

Topic B: Selection of Host City for XXIII Olympic Winter Games

The Olympics are arguably the world’s most important sporting event. For two weeks every two years, sporting events fill the front pages of the world’s newspapers and take over the world’s television. Viewers from every country watch and scrutinize both the athletes and the host city. When the members of the IOC select a location for the Olympic Games, they are making a decision that will permanently alter the host city. After seven years of preparation and billions of dollars of expenses, the host city wel- comes thousands of athletes for two weeks of competition. The attention of the world focuses on the host city, as they scrutinize every decision that the organizing committee makes. Although many cities lose a significant amount of money hosting the Olym- pics, the name recognition that comes with being a host city is unsurpassable. The IOC takes a wide range of factors into account when choosing an Olympic city, including the proposed venues, transportation, and public support.

The 123rd IOC Session will select the host city for the XXIII Olympic Winter Games to be held in 2018. Three cities have submitted bid proposals to the IOC for consideration. Annecy, France is pushing its extensive infrastructure and its high pub- lic support. Although they have a technically strong bid, France has hosted the Olympics more times than Germany and South Korea combined. Munich, Germany is stressing its environmentally friendly construction plans and its reuse of venue from the 1972 Summer Olympics. While Germany has a storied history of success in winter sports, Munich has much lower public ap- proval than the other two cities. Finally, PyeongChang, South Korea is emphasizing its commitment to spreading winter sports throughout Asia and its newly built ski resort. PyeongChang is due for a victory after two failed bids, but some worry that there is not enough enthusiasm for winter sports in Korea. Whichever city the IOC chooses will begin immediately to prepare for 2018 Winter Games. Although this decision might appear as a petty choice for a sporting event, the IOC will have perhaps more power than any other committee at the conference to radically alter the future of a region and its inhabitants.