The 12th ANOC General Assembly and the joint meeting with the IOC Executive Board in Rio de Janeiro May 24-28 reflected the power struggle going on between the national Olympic committees and the International Federations.

The IOC recently agreed to give the IFs a major increase in TV and sponsorship revenues, along with the increased IOC membership via the implementation of the 2000 Reform programme.

Although the NOCs will also have more IOC members, they fear the shift in ratio weakens their impact. The Congress was attended by 196 of the 199 NOCs and they had something to celebrate with the news of a substantial increase in shared revenues from the Top V programme.

The NOCs elected ANOC president Mario Vazquez Rana as their representative on the IOC Executive Board and proposed that each of the five continents would have an equal proportion of numbers among the candidature of 15 NOC or Continental Association presidents for IOC members.

Among other decisions, the Congress called for the restructure of the Olympic ticketing distribution system so that NOCs had adequate supplies for their athletes, officials and sponsors.

The Congress received progress reports from the Organizing Committees of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, 2004 Athens Summer Olympics and the 2006 Torino Winter Games.

IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch made a farewell speech following the joint meeting, reflecting this would be his last address to the ACNO General Assembly as President.

The 2002 Congress will be staged in Kuala Lumpur which was elected ahead of Warsaw.

The main decision taken by the IOC Executive Board was to allow East Timor to compete as individuals at the Sydney Olympics under similar conditions to the participation of Yugoslav athletes at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Only three or four athletes from athletics and boxing were expected to be involved. They would march behind the Olympic flag and wear white track suits and uniforms provided by the IOC.

The Executive Board also rejected an appeal by the South African Hockey Association against the South African NOC’s decision not to send a men’s team to the Sydney Games.