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“We have opened our windows to let fresh air in,” said International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach in December 2014, as IOC Members ushered in the 40 Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendations which were hailed as “the strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement”. Many of the proposed changes at the 127th IOC Session in Monaco focused on safeguarding the uniqueness of the Olympic Games – including introducing a new candidature procedure, reducing the cost of bidding and moving from a sport-based to an event-based programme – while others concentrated on enhancing good governance, transparency and ethics within the Olympic Movement.The successful implementation of these recommendations has already had a wide-reaching impact – from the introduction of more youthful, urban and gender-balanced sports to the event programme of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the increased focus on sustainability from Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028, to the application of new auditing and reporting measures within the IOC. But Olympic Agenda 2020 also included many reforms that focused on strengthening sport’s role in society – a topic that has taken on even greater relevance since the United Nations (UN) recognised sport as an “important enabler” of sustainable development and adopted a new resolution in December 2016 acknowledging the important ways in which sport can help promote education, health, development and social inclusion. PicturedAn increase in the number of mixed gender events is helping the IOC in its goal of achieving 50 per cent female participation at the GamesOLYMPIC REVIEW 35