Ryan Lochte, Katie Ledecky and Kirsty Coventry are among the seven athletes who will be presenting the 2015 Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) awards at this year’s gala in Washington, D.C. The sporting superstars will be presenting the awards at the 2nd ANOC Gala Awards Dinner taking place on Thursday, October 29th at DAR Constitution Hall in D.C.
The ANOC is a collective organization who aims to strengthen the relationships between the NOCs and the Olympic Family for the benefit of the entire Olympic Movement, according to its website. Committed to forging more productive and collaborative working relationships between NOCs and International Federations (IFs), the ANOC has representatives in a number of International Olympic Committee (IOC) Commission, including the Coordination Commissions for Olympic Games, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the Court of Arbitration for Sport (cAS) and the International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS).
Scholarships for athletes and coaches, technical courses and sports administration courses are also within the ANOC’s objectives for developing sport around the world. 2014 marked the organization’s first edition of the Gala Awards Ceremony which commends the achievements of NOCs, athletes, coaches and others from the previous year.
Contributing to its goal of keeping athletes at the heart of the awards ceremony, ANOC will have Lochte, Ledecky, Coventry presenting awards along with former Olympic ice hockey medalist Angela Ruggiero, windsurfing medalist Barbara Kendall and pole vaulting gold medalist Sergey Bubka. Four-time Olympic medalist in track and field, Ato Boldon, is slated to be the master of ceremonies for the event.
Of the upcoming event, ANOC President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah said:
“We are delighted to have so many exceptional athletes taking part in the ANOC Awards 2015. The ANOC Awards should be a true celebration of NOCs and their athletes and the presence of world-famous Olympic athletes to present the awards will make the evening even more special. We wanted this year’s event to be by the athletes for the athletes and so athletes will be involved at every stage, from selecting the award winners all the way to presenting the awards themselves.
“The ANOC Awards is not just about recognising outstanding individual achievements but also about appreciating the collective unity and shared values of the world’s 206 NOCs. Athletes are at the very heart of the Olympic Movement and NOCs play a critical, and often unrecognised role, in preparing them. By providing a spectacular evening of entertainment and celebration, the ANOC.”
