Ensuring greater appeal to youngsters is as a key aim for the Olympic Movement by Thomas Bach during his address to open the 128th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session here this evening.

In a lengthy speech, during which he outlined the necessity for and significance of the Agenda 2020 reform process, the IOC President highlighted youth groups as a key target audience which must be prioritised.

“We have to keep our focus on the road ahead and be aware of the bigger developments in the world to anticipate the defining trends of the future,” he said.

“We have to look no further than our host country Malaysia to get a sense of what the future will look like.

“The median age here in Malaysia is around 25.

"In fact, with over half the world’s population under 30, there are more young people in the world than ever before.

“We must ensure that the Olympic values resonate with the next generations.”

As well as tomorrow’s vote between Brasov and Lausanne to decide the host nation of the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics, Bach also highlighted the new Olympic TV Channel as a “gamechanger” which will realise this ambition.

During a address which explored well-trodden themes, Bach also claimedrecent successes in acquiring long-term contracts in marketing and television-rights negotiations worth $14 billion (£9 billion/€13 billion) is evidence that “our partners have such great confidence in the IOC and the direction we are taking”.
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He also claimed commitments from five countries so far to bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics - the United States along with France, Italy, Germany and Hungary - were evidence of enthusiasm for the Games.

Bach is now overseeing his fourth Session as President since being elected to replace Jacques Rogge at the 125th Session in Buenos Aires in 2013.

He spoke this evening alongside Prince Imran, the IOC member and Olympic Council of Malaysia President, as well as Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who came to the Opening of this Session having just held talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is visiting the country.

Others in attendance included Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim Massimov and Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong, the delegation leaders for the Almaty and Beijing Olympic bids.

Following the speeches, there was a performance by the National Philharmonic Orchestra as well as several other local artists to set into motion a four-day Session due to begin with tomorrow’s 2022 Winter Olympics and 2020 Winter Youth Olympic votes.

It is scheduled to continue until Monday (August 3).

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UK Athletics has received the initial findings of the group it set up to investigate links with the Nike Oregon Project, and has announced that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by Britain's double Olympic and world 5,000 and 10,000 metres champion Mo Farah or in the input to his training regime there.

In the wake of last month’s allegations by a BBC Panorama programme that Alberto Salazar - head coach at the Project and an unpaid consultant with UK Athletics - had abused anti-doping regulations, Britain’s athletics governing body set up a Performance Oversight Group (POG) to evaluate the situation.

While insisting that no details will be divulged until the current formal investigation by US and UK anti-doping authorities had concluded, the UK Athletics statement added: “With reference to the first and most vital objective of the review, the Board can confirm that none of the extensive information supplied to the POG contained any evidence of impropriety on the part of Mo Farah, nor gave UK Athletics any reason to question the appropriateness of the input given by the Oregon Project to Mo Farah's training regime.”

The statement added: “The Board does not expect to be able to make a public announcement of the outcome of its POG findings until after the World Athletics Championships in Beijing.

“UK Athletics continues to take the issue of doping violations in sport extremely seriously and will assist UKAD and other relevant authorities in their important work whenever required.

“There will be no further comment until the full conclusions of the review are announced.”

Farah was questioned by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) as part of their investigation after he had won his 3,000m race at last weekend’s International Association of Athletics Federations Diamond League meeting in London.

The 32-year-old Briton was interviewed at the Grange Tower Bridge for five hours by Bill Bock, the American lawyer who played an influential role in bringing down Lance Armstrong.

Farah claimed he had been happy to cooperate with any investigation.

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European Olympic Committees (EOC) President Patrick Hickey has fiercely condemned what he describes as the "hypocritical" interference from Western Europe in sporting events, including last month's inaugural European Games in Baku.

The Irishman, who also claimed three cities are being considered to host the second European Games in 2019, insisted how countries "cannot have it both ways" and if they are not bidding and not hosting major events then they are in no position to criticise.

"We are sick to death of being lectured by the countries of Western Europe on the values of Olympism and what to do," he said here on the eve of the 128th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session.

"Western Europe think that it’s the European Union of 28 countries.

"I'm President of 50 countries of Europe.

"Any one of those 50 countries has the right to host a Games without having to answer questions to the rest of Europe.

“Western Europe doesn’t stand up to the plate.

“They don’t have any Games.

“They don’t bid for anything."

Hickey, also President of the Olympic Council of Ireland and a member of the IOC's ruling Executive Board, clarified that serious human rights allegations do deserve criticism.

He also expressed his delight that at least four European cities are planning to bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, emphasising that his concerns lie with continental events.

Hickey bemoaned the fact that, with the exception of IOC members Prince Albert of Monaco and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, no Western European leaders attended the Opening Ceremony in Baku despite visiting the country on other occasion when there were political or commercial reasons for doing so.

"We are being used by the politicians to play their game," he added.

"They want us to do the dirty politics but that is not our job.

"We want to focus on sport."

Hickey, like other stakeholders, was forced to deal with much criticism from human rights groups and other organisations in the build-up to the Games, particularly after a journalist from a British newspaper was denied accreditation in the country after having written critical articles on a past visit.

The withdrawal of The Netherlands on the eve of Baku 2015 has left the EOC searching for a host for the 2019 European Games.

Hickey, though, is confident they will be able to announce one soon.

“We’re on target and contrary to what everyone thinks that there might never be a second edition of the European Games, let me tell you very clearly that there will be," he said.

"We’ll make the announcement of the city towards the end of the year.

"We are negotiating at the moment for three key cities.

"It was six but we’ve already whittled it down to three."

He did not confirm that his criticism of Western Europe means no cities from that region was among the three, answering only that "the three bidders are all from Europe".

A debrief meeting in Rome from September 9 to 11 is due to be the next key staging post before a report is given at the EOC Executive Committee meeting in Albanian capital Tirana on September 17, he revealed.

They hope to then make a final decision at the General Assembly in Prague on November 20 and 21.

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