The first meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in our country can be considered very significant. From May 29 to June 4, 1925, the 8th Olympic Congress was held in Prague. In fact, we can say that there were two congresses. In addition to the technical one, for the first time in Olympic history, a pedagogical congress was held, initiated by the IOC President himself, Pierre de Coubertin.
Even before the Olympic Congress, the IOC met on May 26-28 for its session. The most important item on the agenda was the election of a new president. Pierre de Coubertin submitted his long-announced resignation, and Henri de Baillet-Latour from Belgium was elected the new president in the second round. At the same time, representatives of Germany and Austria were elected to the IOC, and both countries could thus participate in the Olympic Games again.
The sessions of both parts of the congress were then opened by a ceremonial meeting at which speeches were delivered by the representative of our government, the Minister of Public Health and Physical Education, the Mayor of Prague Karel Baxa, and the IOC President Pierre de Coubertin. After the ceremonial opening, the technical congress began its proceedings, chaired by the president of the International Athletics Federation, the Swede Sigfrid Edström (who later became the president of the IOC from 1945 to 1952). Among the most important resolutions was the adoption of the status of an amateur, the Olympic oath, the setting of the minimum program and maximum length of the Olympic Games, and the introduction of the Winter Olympic Games, when the previous year’s Winter Sports Week was declared the 1st Winter Olympic Games.
The pedagogical congress, which was opened by Pierre de Coubertin and chaired by Professor Karel Weigner, discussed a number of issues. Of the many issues addressed by the congress, it is necessary to highlight the idea of education through sport, the emphasis on the all-round sporting ability of children and youth, on women’s sports, on the need for cooperation between coaches and doctors, and on the application of the chivalrous spirit and fair play. The Prague Congress can still be considered very important for the development of the Olympic idea. It should be added that our representative in the IOC, Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský, made a great contribution to the preparation and conduct of the congress.
In 1977, from 15 to 18 June, the IOC met in Prague for its 79th session. The ceremonial opening took place in the Carolinum. After speeches by the chairman of the Czechoslovak Sports Union and the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee, Antonín Himl, and the IOC President Lord Michael Killanin, the President of Czechoslovakia, Gustáv Husák, opened the session. In the afternoon, the actual proceedings began in the congress hall of the Inter-Continental Hotel. On the first day of the meeting, 11 new IOC members were elected. The further program included reports on the progress of the Olympic Games in 1976 and the preparations of the organizers of the Games in 1980. Furthermore, the IOC set the duration of the Summer Games at 16 days and the Winter Games at 13 days.
The program of the Games was also expanded – for the summer Games by two weight categories in judo, in weightlifting the weight category up to 100 kg was included and the 50 km walk returned to the program. In yachting, the Tempest class replaced the Star class, and in the Winter Games, a 10 km biathlon competition was added. The inclusion of modern gymnastics was narrowly missed. There were greater differences in the voting against the inclusion of samba, the cycling tandem, the women’s 3000-meter run, and the women’s 20-kilometer cross-country skiing.
The last day was devoted to completing the discussion of the reports of the individual commissions. Then continued with a visit to the Old Town Hall, where they were invited by the Prague Mayor Zdeněk Zuska, and the evening farewell took place at Koloděje Castle.
It must be said that the IOC members thanked for the excellent care and unanimously approved the proposal of the Rules Commission to award the Olympic Cup for 1976 to the Czechoslovak Sports Union, especially for the 1975 Spartakiad. On the other hand, it must be said that there were also concerns among the organizers as to whether the guests would be interested in the shadows of the political and social life of the host country, especially in the year of the publication of Charter 77. However, in the interest of the necessary consensus, the IOC representatives were not interested in touching on these issues. The IOC president, however, had to protest when his speech at the opening ceremony was insensitively censored by the Czechoslovak press.
For the third and so far last time, the IOC met in Prague from 1 to 3 July 2003 at its 115th session. The most important issues to be resolved were the selection of the host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the further perspective of the Games, and the supplementary elections of members and vice-president of the IOC. The first day was full of formalities. First, President Václav Klaus received the participants of the session at Prague Castle. He also spoke at the ceremonial opening of the session in the Municipal House. Other speakers were the chairman of the Czech Olympic Committee, Milan Jirásek, and the IOC President, Jacques Rogge of Belgium. It should be noted that the well-known actor Marek Eben introduced the entire evening very well. Before the evening program, Jacques Rogge officially opened the exhibition Sport in Czech Art of the 20th Century.
On the second day, the voting on the venue of the XXI Winter Olympic Games took place. The voting already took place at the Hilton Hotel. In the first round of voting, Pyeongchang was first (51 votes), followed by Vancouver (40 votes), and Salzburg, Austria, was eliminated (16 votes). In the second round, however, the Canadian candidate Vancouver eventually won, receiving 56 votes and thus defeating the Korean candidate Pyeongchang (53 votes). It is perhaps worth adding that Vancouver had hockey legend Wayne Gretzky in its delegation, Salzburg had skier Hermann Maier and footballer Franz Beckenbauer, and Pyeongchang, in addition to two short track speed skating Olympic champions, also had the 1992 marathon winner Hwang Young-Joa.
Of the other points adopted, let us mention at least the election of a new vice-president, Kim Un-jong from Korea, the postponement of the Olympic Games in Beijing and the inclusion of the BMX cycling discipline in the program of the Games, the adoption of uniform rules in the fight against doping and the acceptance of Afghanistan, East Timor and Kiribati into the IOC, which thus united 202 countries. For us, it was important to annul the results of the Russian skier Lazutina from the 2002 Winter Olympics, which meant that our Kateřina Neumannová won silver in the 15 km race and bronze in the combined event.