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≡ 144th IOC SESSION ≡
A glowing financial report highlighted the first morning of the International Olympic Committee’s 144th Session in Costa Novarino, Greece, with a slide which showed that the already-healthy IOC has committed revenues of $18.4 billion across the next 12 years:
● $7.5 billion for 2025-28
● $6.9 billion for 2029-32
● $4.0 billion for 2033-36
The IOC also published, remarkably, its financial statements for 2024, less than three months after year-end, about three months earlier than usually seen in its annual report (and also a demonstration to other federations which take a year or more to share its audited annual financials). The highlights were spectacular:
● The IOC showed $4.414 billion in revenue, with $3.291 billion spent to put on the Games and support the Olympic Movement:
● $2.121 billion to IFs-NOCs-organizing committees
● $940.4 million to Olympic operations and Solidarity
● $229.5 million for Olympic Movement promotion
That’s 74.5% of the total revenues. The IOC’s own administrative operations consumed $196.3 million (4.4%), and there was a surplus of revenues over expenses of $927.3 million (21.0%) and an additional $206.5 million in investment income. So, the IOC showed an overall gain of $1.134 billion for 2024.
The IOC regularly says it re-distributes 90% of its revenues to the Olympic Movement, but that is across a full quadrennial; a check of the IOC’s financial statements indicate it’s more like 80%, but it’s still quite a bit.
● The primary distributions from the IOC to its operating partners was itemized at $2.09 billion in 2024:
● $1.05 billion to Paris 2024
● $22.7 million to other organizing committees
● $590.1 million to International Federations
● $535.7 million to National Olympic Committees
● $320.9 million to the USOPC
● $190.0 million to the Olympic Movement Fund
● $10.1 million for TOP sponsorship costs
As part of these distributions, the IOC supports a host of Olympic Movement service organizations, including:
● $20.38 million to the World Anti-Doping Agency
● $9.14 million to the Court of Arbitration for Sport
● $2.00 million to the International Paralympic Committee
For Paris 2024, there was also a bill for television production costs of $437.2 million, an under-appreciated cost which is no longer borne by an organizing committee or a national host broadcaster.
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Overall, then, the IOC’s balance sheet showed $6.120 billion in assets at the end of 2024, down from $6.492 billion at the end of 2023.
Reserves were up, however, from $3.780 billion to $4.880 billion, thanks to the success of the Paris Games.
In short, the IOC has a lot of money and is going to have a lot more coming in the future.
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