IOC shakes up bid process for 2024 Summer Olympics

Now it is recognised by the athletics, basketball, football, handball, judo, table tennis and taekwondo federations.

He added: “We will arm our young people with sport, and not with guns.”

The rarity of the Olympics – once every four years for a summer and a winter Games – was both a strength and a weakness for the IOC, according to Sorrell.

The four-time world champion is now serving as the president of her Jang Mi-ran Foundation, supporting sports education programs to nurture young athletes and those from underprivileged families.

“All the sports facilities are broken down”, said Wilson Deng Kuoirot, a top army officer who is South Sudan’s first national Olympic committee president.

Marial will compete at the athletics world championships in Beijing this month before preparing for Rio.

As part of their proposal, Lausanne’s bidders said they planned to stage some skiing events in neighbouring France, embracing the IOC’s new Agenda 2020 proposals encouraging bidding cities to adopt more flexible and cheaper strategies. Thousands of civilians in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state face starvation after the government blocked aid groups from using the Nile River to deliver relief food, aid agencies said late last week.

He said, “Without question the IOC and the Olympic Movement must continue to evolve and attract youth, including vital new audiences in fast-growth markets… where your values and mission to make the world a better place through sport can and will change lives”. “We are going to take care of her like a daughter”.

Blatter and a number of other IOC members had been up for re-election for another eight-year term, but IOC president Thomas Bach said the Swiss football administrator had sent him a letter on 23 July in which he said he would not be standing again. “Sports builds bridges… we will stand by your sides, we will assist in your development as much as we can”. The nascent Olympic committee hopes that basketball, volleyball and handball teams could also go to Rio next year, if they can get help.

The unanimous recognition of the country’s Olympic Committee drew a loud round of applause from the IOC members with South Sudanese officials visibly moved and some in tears.