LAUSANNE , Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Executive Board of International Olympic Committee (IOC) started on Tuesday its final meeting of 2013 at its headquarters in Lausanne in a ""productive"" way, said the head of the committee.
The executive board meeting, which would continue into December 14 in closed-door format, is also the first led by President Thomas Bach since his election in September at the 125th IOC session held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tuesday's events began with a joint meeting between the executive board and the Executive Council of the Association of the National Olympic Committees (ANOC) whereby Bach called for a minute of silence to coincide with the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in South Africa. After that, the executive board met this afternoon to discuss a wide range of themes related to Olympic games.
Bach told an after-event press conference that today's meeting was more about the technical issues , and no so much about the strategic ones which will be discussed in the next four days, for which he was ""very optimistic"".
""I think we had a very productive meeting, we had excellent discussions, and this is encouraging me very much for the next four days when we will have our brainstorming meeting because this is exactly what I am looking forward to, such an open discussion in a very constructive atmosphere where everybody is participating and trying to find the best solutions,"" said the top official in sport.