FIM Press Release
On 2 April, Jorge Viegas met Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, at its headquarters in Lausanne, for the first time since he was elected FIM President in December 2018. The last meeting between the FIM and IOC Presidents goes back some twenty years.
From Left – FIM President Jorge Viegas and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach © IOC
The FIM President stressed the historic ties of the FIM with the Olympic Movement. He highlighted the highly successful appearances of Speedway at the World Games in 1985 and 2017 and of indoor Trial event in the 2005 edition in Duisburg, and assured the IOC President of the FIM’s determination to preserve the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect.
Jorge Viegas spoke with Irina Gladkikh, IOC Head of Winter Sports and IF Relations, and IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell. They addressed several important subjects including the energy transition and the development of championships for electric motorcycles and e-bikes. Not only is the FIM fully on board with this transformation of sport in human terms; it is also taking an active part in the energy transformation revolution. The two-wheel world is well aware of the urgent need to move towards sustainable and renewable energies.
Further to the reform of the Olympic programme in 2014, the IOC has introduced an innovative concept with the addition of five new sports that will be invited to take part in the 2020 Olympic Games starting in Tokyo alongside 28 more traditional Olympic sports. Jorge Viegas explained the FIM’s hopes that the work being done on the energy tradition by the FIM and the stakeholders of motorcycling sport will be determining for its chances of becoming an Olympic sport in the future.
Since 2019, 25 Federations have submitted candidatures for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, including the FIM, which expressed its desire to be represented at the Games by E-Trial. It will certainly apply again to be represented in future editions of multisport Games at world level.
The FIM and the IOC plan to meet again and IOC President Thomas Bach is expected to visit the FIM headquarters in the near future.