Olympic Motto has been updated with a new word, “together,” approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
At Tuesday’s IOC session in Tokyo, the decision was unanimously adopted to include “together” in the Olympic motto of “faster, higher, stronger.” Xinhua reports that Thomas Bach proposed the idea after his re-election as IOC president during the virtual 137th IOC Session in March. Bach also reiterated his commitment to organizing the Tokyo Olympics regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that cancellation was never an option.
“Cancellation was never an option for us: The IOC never abandons the athletes,” declared Bach in his opening speech of the 138th IOC Session In Tokyo on Tuesday.
“At the beginning of the pandemic outbreak last year, we faced a choice: cancellation or postponement. There was nothing in between. It was either cancelling or postponing the Olympic Games.”
In addition to organizing the postponed Olympic Games, Bach noted that the IOC’s goals included supporting the Olympic community and emphasizing the role sports plays in society. From immigration requirements to testing, social distancing, contact tracing, and many other COVID-19 countermeasures, Bach said that everyone in Tokyo had experienced COVID-19 first-hand.
In addition, the German revealed that 85 percent of Olympic village residents and 100 percent of IOC members present in Tokyo were either vaccinated or immune to the disease.
