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{{short description|117th International Olympic Committee Session held in Singapore from 2 to 9 July 2005}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}

The '''117th International Olympic Committee Session''' was held for the first time in [[Singapore]] from 2 to 9 July 2005. Two important decisions were made through voting during the session – namely the [[2012 Summer Olympics bids|selection of the hosting city]] for the [[2012 Summer Olympics]], and a review of the 28 sports currently represented in the summer games.

The session was held at the [[Raffles City Singapore|Raffles City Convention Centre]], which is on level 4 of the Raffles City complex. The opening ceremony on 5 July 2005 was held at the [[Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay]].

[[File:117th IOC Session logo.png|centre|200px|Logo of the 117th IOC Session, Singapore.]]
[[File:117th IOC Police.jpg|thumb|Tight security was highly visible during the 117th IOC Session. A police officer stood watch on the fourth floor of the [[Raffles City Singapore|Raffles City]] complex where the session was taking place.]]

==Proceedings==

<gallery>
File:117th IOC Bannar.jpg|Banner of the 117th IOC Session outside the venue at [[Raffles City Singapore|Raffles City]]
File:117th IOC car.jpg|Official car sponsored by [[Mercedes-Benz]]
</gallery>

===1 July 2005===
An exhibition was launched at the podium of the Raffles City Shopping Complex, that would continue until 10 July.

===2 July 2005===
The IOC Session commenced.

===3 July 2005===
The IOC's executive board started two days of meetings.

===4 July 2005===
The executive board meetings resumed with updates on the progress of preparations for the [[2006 Winter Olympics]] in [[Turin]], [[2008 Summer Olympics]] in Beijing and [[2010 Winter Olympics]] in Vancouver by their respective representatives. The board approved Beijing's request to hold the [[Equestrian at the 2008 Summer Olympics|equestrian]] events in Hong Kong, which is a separate [[National Olympic Committee|NOC]] from mainland China in the "best interests of the competition and the well-being of the horses".<ref>{{cite news| url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/summer/2005-07-08-equestrian-events-beijing_x.htm | work=USA Today | title=2008 Olympic equestrian events to be held in Hong Kong | date=8 July 2005}}</ref>

===5 July 2005===
The opening ceremony was held at the [[Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay]] and the guest of honour was the Prime Minister of Singapore, [[Lee Hsien Loong]], who officially opened the session. A special type of hybrid [[orchid]] had been bred to commemorate the IOC Session in Singapore. It was named Vanda IOC. A cultural performance of dance and songs was held with the theme of "One Voice, One Rhythm, One World".

The ceremony was attended by IOC members and more than 2,000 other guests, included many foreign leaders (it was the most prolific IOC event in history) :
*{{flag|United Nations}} Commissioner [[Adolf Ogi]]
*{{flag|Singapore}} Prime Minister [[Lee Hsien Loong]]
*{{flag|France}} President [[Jacques Chirac]]
*{{flag|United Kingdom}} Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]]
*{{flag|Russia}} Prime Minister [[Mikhail Fradkov]]
*{{flag|Spain}} Prime Minister [[José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero]]
*{{flag|United States}} Former First Lady [[Hillary Clinton]]
*{{flag|Monaco}} Prince [[Albert II, Prince of Monaco|Albert II]]
*{{flag|Luxembourg}} Grand Duke [[Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg|Henri]]
*{{flag|Denmark}} Crown Prince [[Frederik X|Frederik]]
*{{flag|IOC}} President [[Jacques Rogge]] and former President [[Juan Antonio Samaranch]]

===6 July 2005: 2012 Olympic host city election===
{{further|Bids for the 2012 Summer Olympics}}

Each of the five bid cities had 45&nbsp;minutes to make a final presentation to the IOC members, after which voting commenced and the final results were announced at 19:30 Singapore time. Local sailor [[Griselda Khng]] handed an envelope holding the result of the vote to IOC president [[Jacques Rogge]], who announced: "The International Olympic Committee has the honor of announcing, that the games of the 30th Olympiad, in 2012, are awarded to the city of [[London 2012 Olympic bid|London]]."

The result of the vote was as follows:

{| class=wikitable
|+ '''2012 Host City Election – ballot results'''
|-
! City
! abbr ="country" |NOC
| bgcolor="silver" |'''Round 1'''
| bgcolor="silver" |'''Round 2'''
| bgcolor="silver" |'''Round 3'''
| bgcolor="silver" |'''Round 4'''
|-
| [[London]] || {{flag|Great Britain}} ||'''22'''||27||'''39'''||'''54'''
|-
| [[Paris]] || {{flag|France}} ||21||25||33||50
|-
| [[Madrid]] || {{flag|Spain}} ||20||'''32'''||31||—
|-
| [[New York City]] || {{flag|United States}} ||19||16||—||—
|-
| [[Moscow]] || {{flag|Russia}} ||15||—||—||—
|}

===7 July 2005===
The final evaluation report of the [[2004 Summer Olympics]] in Athens was presented and the Athens Games were finally closed. Reports on the progress of preparations for future Games were also submitted.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}}

===8 July 2005: Review of Olympic sports===
The 28 sports in the Summer Olympics programme that existed at that time were all put up on the ballots, three years after a similar attempt failed to gain support from IOC members during the 114th IOC Session in [[Mexico City]].<ref>"New format spares modern pentathlon the axe". TODAY. 9 July 2005.</ref><!--<ref name=factsheetsports>{{cite web |url=http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_1135.pdf |title=Factsheet: The sports on the Olympic programme |publisher=International Olympic Committee |year=2008 |month=February  |access-date={{dts|2009|02|08}}}}</ref>--> Prior to the voting, baseball, softball, [[modern pentathlon]], [[taekwondo]] and fencing were considered as most likely to be dropped.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}} Five non-Olympic sports would then be voted to get in, in case any of the existing sports would be dropped, as IOC rules allow a maximum of 28 Summer Olympic sports. These sports – golf, [[roller sports]], [[Squash (sport)|squash]], [[rugby sevens|rugby]] and [[karate]] – were recommended by the IOC Olympic Games Program Committee, which has shortlisted the sports that applied to be included. Golf and rugby were considered the favorites to be voted in, both mainly for their popularity and also for their relatively small number of events (each one, if accepted, would have consisted of 2 events).{{citation needed|date=October 2011}}

IOC President [[Jacques Rogge]] has been a keen supportive of this move, which was one of his agendas since being elected in 2001, while the [[Association of Summer Olympic International Federations]] (ASOIF) said changing the current set of 28 sports risked changing the "magic combination of team sports and individual sports", attributing one of the success factors of the Olympic games to the current programme.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/08/content_3192125.htm |title=Summer sports urge IOC not to run risk |access-date=30 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209214846/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/08/content_3192125.htm |archive-date=9 February 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A few days before the votes were cast, the IOC accepted the ASOIF request that the number of votes given for each sport will not be published, only "yay" or "nay". The reason given for the unusual request was in order to avoid a "popularity ranking" of all Olympic sports. Any sport that would get a simple majority of "nay" would be dropped from the Olympic program in 2012, but would remain eligible for readmission in future Games.<ref>"Olympic programme may get overhaul; Move to include more sports after softball, baseball were booted out". TODAY. 28 October 2005.</ref>

In the morning IOC members voted to remove baseball and softball from the games<!--<ref name=factsheetsports/>-->. The decision has triggered dismay in some nations such as the United States where both sports originated from, and Canada,<ref>"Canadian Olympic Committee Disappointed in IOC's Decision to remove Baseball and Softball from Olympic Program". Canada Newswire. 9 July 2005.</ref> where both have a strong following. Some attributed the exclusion of baseball to the fact that [[Major League Baseball]] did not allow its players to participate in the Olympics, held during the season (unlike the [[National Hockey League]] that allowed it since the [[1998 Winter Olympics]]) and the widespread use of prohibited drugs in the professional leagues. The main reason for exclusion of softball was that it was included as a women-only sport mainly to be a gender-equalizer [[Bat-and-ball games|bat-and-ball]] sport for baseball (men-only sport), and with baseball out this reasoning no longer existed. Another reason given was that both sports consist of large teams and their elimination will make room for many athletes, in comparison to modern pentathlon, for example, which only consist of 64 athletes.<ref>"IOC slams door on new events; Karate, squash, golf, roller-sports and rugby fail to win approval". South China Morning Post. 9 July 2005.</ref>

In the afternoon, a secret vote by IOC members gave [[Squash (sport)|squash]] and [[karate]] over 51% of votes, but a subsequent vote to include them in the list of Olympic sports in the [[Olympic Charter]] has failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority needed for such amendment. Therefore, by the end of the day two sports were dropped and none added, and the program of the [[2012 Summer Olympics]] was reduced to 26 sports.

That night at [[The Oriental Singapore]], then SNOC president and defence minister, [[Teo Chee Hean]] threw a banquet.  Rogge gave Singapore full marks for the session organisation, a perfect 6.<ref>"Rogge gives Singapore full marks". The Straits Times. 9 July 2005. Retrieved 30 April May 2013.</ref>

===9 July 2005===
[[Lambis Nikolaou]] of Greece and [[Chiharu Igaya]] from Japan were elected as Vice presidents. Singapore's IOC member, [[Ng Ser Miang]] was elected to the IOC Executive Board to replace Nikolaou, whose term as board member was due to expire.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://en.people.cn/200507/09/eng20050709_195188.html|title=People's Daily Online -- Nikolaou, Igaya elected new vice-presidents of IOC|website=en.people.cn|access-date=4 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304065815/http://en.people.cn/200507/09/eng20050709_195188.html|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Olympic Anthem criticism==
The trio who sung the [[Olympic Hymn]] in [[Greek language|Greek]] was criticised by both the media and the audience. They were Singaporean soprano Khor Ai Ming, Singaporean tenor William Lim and Japanese soprano Satsuki Nagatome. The trio sung with gusto just before the announcement of the [[2012 Summer Olympics]].

The Guardian reported on their operatic rendition "Two Singaporean sopranos and a tenor dressed like a maître d' subjected the Olympic anthem, a tune whose primary virtue is to be heard only once every four years, to a fearful mauling."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/07/olympics2012.communities|title=One sweet word: London|first=Paul|last=Kelso|newspaper=The Guardian |date=7 July 2005|via=www.theguardian.com|access-date=16 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305085304/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/07/olympics2012.communities|archive-date=5 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> [[The Times]] of the UK described them as "three Orientals... one distinctly off key".<ref>{{cite news | last = Hamilton | first = Alan | title = It was the best of times... | work = The Times| date = 7 July 2005|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/london_2012/article541239.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604205525/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/london_2012/article541239.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 June 2011 | access-date = 20 May 2009 | location=London}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of IOC meetings]]
*[[121st IOC Session]]
*[[2010 Summer Youth Olympics]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

{{2012 Summer Olympics bids}}
{{International Olympic Committee}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:117th Ioc Session}}
[[Category:International Olympic Committee sessions]]
[[Category:2012 Summer Olympics bids]]
[[Category:2005 in Singaporean sport]]
[[Category:2005 conferences]]
[[Category:Sport in Singapore]]
[[Category:International conferences in Singapore]]