International Olympic Committee Faces Debate on Regulations

Fast-paced shouting and overlapping voices filled the room of the International Olympic Committee as the room grew more divided. Members were in disagreement over the committee's focus.

Many delegates, including Franco Carraro and Anita L. DeFrantz, said policy wasn’t the problem, but rather the lack of enforcement.

"The IOC makes policies, but they’re not executed," DeFrantz told the committee.

Others, believed economic stability was more important, but the majority were focused on regulations and environmental policies.

Clean energy sources such as solar and algae, suggested by Willi Kaltschmitt Lujan from Guatemala, became popular along with sustainable infrastructure. Sustainable infrastructure would consist of repurposing university dorms to house athletes along with reusing and remodeling former stadiums.

According to DeFrantz, completed stadiums are often completely abandoned, which wastes resources and money. She expanded by explaining how they would shift from creating new buildings to a policy of renovation.

Richard L. Canón also supported the idea of reusing stadiums, even suggesting that they could be built indoors to make renovation simpler. He emphasized the importance of regulations as well, with the idea that they could even be used to decide which cities would host the Olympics.

Yang Yang of China added that this could help make sure cities are accountable for their actions and have long term goals.

These standards were met with opposition from some members including Octavian Morariu of Romania, who explained that certain standards could “exclude other countries with potential”.

Morariu also said, “The goal of the Olympics is opening up the world through sports which includes opening up lesser developed countries, not just more developed ones."

Supporters of these regulations also expressed their concerns. Lujan explained how regulations need to be “not country specific”, in order to allow all countries to participate.