The 4th Meeting of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Rio 2016™ Olympic Games (CoCom), takes places on 18-22 February in a hotel in Rio de Janeiro’s Zona Oeste (West Zone). The Commission has members from the five continents that represent various Olympic Movement units, such as athletes and Presidents of International Sports Federations and National Olympic Committees.

The President of the Commission, Nawal El Moutawakel, from Morocco, the first African born female Muslim to win an Olympic gold medal, will open the round of meetings. Just after her presentation, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, President of the Organising Committee for the Rio 2016™Olympic and Paralympic Games, will welcome the group.

Aldo Rebelo, Sports Minister; Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro; Régis Fichtner, Chief Secretary of the State of Rio de Janeiro; Maria Silvia Bastos, President of the Municipal Olympic Company; Marcio Fortes, President of the Olympic Public Authority; and Andrew Parsons, President of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (BPC) are among the Brazilian authorities whose presence is confirmed at the event.

On CoCom’s day 1, specialists from various Rio 2016™ areas such as Sustainability, Infrastructure, Finances and Accommodation among others, will talk about their projects’ status and the ongoing Games preparations. On day 2, the Commission members will visit Infrastructure and Sports Venues construction sites in the morning; and in the afternoon, they will present their lectures to the Organising Committee. On day 3, El Moutawakel and Nuzman will close the round of meetings with their final remarks.

At every edition of the Olympic Games, the IOC forms a Coordination Commission, which visits the host cities periodically with the aim of helping the Organising Committee in its work and monitoring the projects’ development. The group assigned for the Rio 2016™ Games was formed in January 2010. In June 2012, the 3rd CoCom took place, the meeting was held annually between 2010 and 2012 and will be held twice yearly from 2013.

Every Commission member has prior experience in Olympic Games Evaluation or Coordination Commissions or in Organising Committees, ensuring the necessary coordination for the event’s success. First female Olympic Champion in 400m hurdles, El Moutawakel became the first female Chairperson of an IOC Coordination Commission.

Besides her and the IOC Olympic Games Executive Director, Gilbert Felli, from Switzerland, the other members of the Coordination Commission for Rio 2016™ are: Alexander Popov (Russia), Alex Gilady (Israel), Beatrice Allen (The Gambia), Ching-Kuo Wu (Taiwan), Francesco Ricci Bitti (Italy), José Luis Campo (Argentina), Gunilla Lindberg (Sweden), John Coates (Australia), Julio César Maglione (Uruguay), Nat Indrapana (Thailand), Nicole Hoevertsz (Aruba), Richard L Carrión (Puerto Rico), Sergey Bubka (Ukraine), Timothy Tsun Ting Fok (Hong Kong) and Willi Kaltschmitt Luján (Guatemala).

The Commission members have been in Rio de Janeiro since the end of last week. Last Saturday they were able to watch the Carnival 2013 Champions Parade, when the six best placed samba schools – Vila Isabel, Beija-Flor, Grande Rio, Salgueiro, Imperatriz Leopoldinense and Unidos da Tijuca – returned to parade at the Sambódromo, the site that, during Rio 2016™, will host the marathon’s start and finish as well as the archery competitions.