The prototype Organising Committee
Set up to raise funds for the staging of the first Olympic Games of the modern era, the Council of 12 provided a template for today’s organising committees.
The Olympic Charter states that the organisation of the Olympic Games is entrusted by the IOC to the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the country of the host city, and to the host city itself. The NOC is thus responsible for setting up an Organising Committee (OCOG) that reports directly to the IOC Executive Board and whose executive body includes IOC members from that country, the president and secretary general of the NOC, at least one member representing the host city and, optionally, representatives of public authorities and other leading figures.
As key constituents of the Olympic Movement, modern-day OCOGs have a very wide-ranging brief. It is their job to plan, organise, finance and deliver the Games in line with the Host City Contract signed by the IOC and the relevant NOC and local authority. They are also sizeable organisations with significant budgets. One and a half years out from the games, for instance, the Paris 2024 Organising Committee already employed no fewer than 800 people, and has a lifetime budget of EUR 4.38 billion. The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee employed as many as 7,000 people at the peak of its activities and achieved a final balanced budget of USD 5.8 billion.
The forerunner of the organising committee was the Council of 12, which was formed and chaired by Crown Prince Constantine of Greece to raise funds to meet the cost of staging the Games of the I Olympiad, which came at a time when the Greek economy was struggling. Like most countries at the time, Greece also lacked any kind of sporting infrastructure, which was why the Council was divided into subcommittees that each covered a different sport or area and comprised members with specific knowledge of the sport/area in question.
The Council of 12 had nine subcommittees in total: water sports; shooting; training of Greek athletes; wrestling and gymnastics; fencing; cycling; outdoor sports; the restoration of the Panathenaic Stadium; welcoming of visitors.