(ATR) The Olympic capital of Lausanne hosted high-level meetings last week that showed it retains the heartbeat of the global sports movement.
The most important of these meetings took place at the temporary headquarters of the International Olympic Committee, where Olympic leaders of North and South Korea came together for landmark talks to determine if and how North Korea could participate in the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics.
After a little less than three hours, IOC President Thomas Bach announced that 22 North Korean athletes would compete in the Olympics in South Korea and would be joined by 24 team officials and 21 media representatives.
Perhaps the biggest announcement was that North and South Korea would form a unified women’s hockey team under the name ‘Korea’ and would march under the unification flag in the Feb. 9 Opening Ceremony.
Prior to the meeting at IOC headquarters on Jan. 20, senior IOC management met with both North and South Korean Olympic officials separately at the Lausanne Palace Hotel to lay the groundwork for the official summit last Saturday.
The Lausanne Palace Hotel also hosted the first Executive Committee meeting for leaders of the European Olympic Committees on Jan. 18. The meeting was the first for EOC President Janez Kocijancic as full president after serving in an interim leadership role for 15 months. Reports about the Minsk 2019 European Games and the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics were delivered.
On Wednesday, Jan. 17, TSE Consulting became fully integrated into the Burson Marsteller firm under the new name Burson Marsteller Sport. Managing director Lars Haue-Pedersen says the change will help the company solidify Lausanne as the "Silicon Valley of Sport".
Click here for photos from a busy week in the Olympic capital.
Coverage and photos by Kevin Nutley
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