IOC recognises cheerleading, muay Thai

The International Olympic Committee’s executive board voted on Tuesday to recognise cheerleading and the combat sport muay Thai, meaning that the governing body for each sport will receive at least $25,000 annually from the committee and have the opportunity to apply for additional grants.

The provisional recognition of the two sports, which will last for up to three years, lays the groundwork for each sport to apply for inclusion in the Olympics.

At any point during those three years, committee executives can vote to fully recognise the sports, after which each could petition to be included in the games.

This year, the committee voted to include several new sports – among them skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing – in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, in the interest of appealing to younger audiences.

Tuesday’s vote to approve cheerleading and muay Thai, a form of kickboxing similar to Cambodia’s kun Khmer, signalled further efforts by the Olympic committee to appeal to a new generation as it battles a global doping scandal that is threatening its credibility and relevance.

Kit McConnell, the International Olympic Committee’s sports director, invoked the “high youth appeal” of cheerleading.

That sport’s newly recognised governing body has its headquarters in the US.

Also on Tuesday, it was announced that a former judge of the French Constitutional Court, Guy Canivet, had stepped down from his work at the Olympic committee.

In addition to serving as vice chairman of the organisation’s ethics commission, he had been leading a disciplinary commission focused on Russian doping and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

That commission is expected to rule on penalties in coming months.

The committee attributed Canivet’s departure to personal reasons.

Sa muel Sch mid, a Sw iss law yer who served on the ethics commission with Canivet, will ta ke over control of t he Sochi disciplinar y commission, the Oly mpic committee said.

That commission wi l l be ex pected to react to a new invest igat ive report on Russia n doping t hat is set to be published on Fr iday by t he World Anti-Doping Agency.

A spokesman for the Olympic committee sa id t hat t he commission would focus on disciplining implicated Russia n at h letes a head of t he next games, in Februar y 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.