The Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) in its livestreamed 41st Annual General Assembly (AGA), noted the success of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and presented a line-up of regional and global sporting competitions that athletes of Oceania could look forward to. It also shared a suite of support available to the region as countries continue to recognise the importance of sport in health, social and economic development, particularly in ongoing COVID-19 pandemic realities.
ONOC President Robin Mitchell thanked all National Olympic Committees (NOCs) for participating in the XXXII Olympiad, congratulating Australia and New Zealand for their finest performances ever, and for finishing sixth and 13th overall respectively.
President Mitchell also pointed to a very busy road to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as there were several key competitions in the lead up including the Commonwealth Games, Pacific Mini Games in Northern Marianas (Saipan 2022) and the Pacific Games (Honiara 2023), as well as various invitations from the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).
New commission on Sustainability progressing to formalisation in 2022
ONOC Vice-President, Baklai Temengil-Chilton, provided a key highlight as Chair of the Working Group on the development and establishment of an ONOC Sustainability Commission to champion the use of sport and athletes toward climate change and environmental concerns in the Pacific region.
Historic achievement in Gender Parity
Chair of the ONOC Equity Commission, Helen Brownlee, shared that the Tokyo 2020 Games achieved 48.8% gender parity, the highest to date.
Brownlee added that while there remained variances in gender balance based on sport, the IOC Women in Sport Commission was “working hard to change this and there are changes that are coming”.
Call for NOCs to embrace digitalisation to increase athletes’ voices
Chair of the ONOC Athletes’ Commission, Karo Lelai, called for National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to embrace digitalisation at national level.
Lelai said, “Our athletes are affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and their training and capacity building opportunities have gone online over the last two years.”
Olympic Solidarity success and new quad opportunity
The Olympic Solidarity Programme presented from IOC headquarters in Lausanne, sharing the success of Oceania athletes under the Olympic scholarship.
James MacLeod, head of Olympic Solidarity, said three Olympic diplomas were won by Olympic scholarship recipients and a silver medal was won by an Oceania athlete who was beneficiary of the programme.