Originally, the 137^th IOC Session was planned to take place in Athens. However, due to the overall situation with the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, the IOC Executive Board decided to hold this Session virtually and to propose to the IOC Session that Athens should be selected as the host city of the IOC Session in 2025.

After the vote, the IOC President said: “We are looking forward to coming to Greece and hopefully also to Ancient Olympia, to our birthplace and our spiritual home, in 2025.”

In his opening address to the ongoing IOC Session on Wednesday, IOC President Thomas Bach said the fact that the membership could not gather together in Greece came “as a great disappointment to all of us”.

He thanked all the Greek organisers, in particular the Hellenic Olympic Committee and its President, Spyros Capralos, for their understanding and the great preparatory work that had already gone into organising the Session.

The IOC President then handed over to Mr Capralos, who opened the remote IOC Session symbolically from the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens – the iconic venue that played host to the first celebration of the modern Olympic Games in 1896.