The IOC has moved away from the traditional bidding process, with its Future Host Commission instead identifying and proposing its preferred candidate to the Executive Board.

The Executive Board can then enter targeted dialogue with a bid before choosing whether or not to recommend that a proposal is brought to a vote at an IOC Session.

Brisbane 2032 became the first edition of the Summer Olympics awarded under this format, when it entered targeted dialogue with the IOC Executive Board in February last year before having its hosting rights rubber-stamped at the 138^th Session in Tokyo.

Barrett discussed some of the advantages to the IOC of this new process with insidethegames, arguing that it opened the field to a wider range of interested cities, regions and countries.

"I think some of the benefits that we’re seeing everyday when we speak to people is how they like this new approach to doing things and how it’s bringing people to the table, and many of the discussions we have with interested parties is that they feel comfortable," she reflected.

"They feel welcome coming to this process because of the new way of doing things.

"In the old process they might not have approached us.

"I think that this is a doors open policy - we’re here to be able to talk with anybody at anytime about any edition of the Games, and they might not even have an idea of what edition of the Games they want to go for.

"They might think we have a possibility of organising Games that they'd like to discuss with us but without any commitment, and I think that’s also the big difference.

"In the past people couldn’t really speak to us until we opened a process, so already at that point you’re so far down the line.

"Often we would have discussions, and we’d be thinking to ourselves, 'if only we’d been able to talk to them a year ago, or six months ago', because things would set in place that are difficult to change.

"If only we’d been able to engage earlier we could have had a much better discussion, and I think that is the beauty of this new approach.

"You can really have an open and frank and non-committal discussion, or a sharing of ideas.

"Cities, regions and NOCs [National Olympic Committees] can road test ideas, have a chat, and learn what it’s all about, without having to make any commitment.

"And in some respects if they don't want to, without having to have gone public yet."

Barrett insisted that the flexibility of the approach is better suited to allowing a proposal "to mature at its own speed without it necessarily being under a public spotlight if it isn't ready to do so".

She added that discussions also enabled the IOC to offer "the expertise that we can bring with being at the forefront of Games planning everyday" to various interested parties.

"If a project doesn’t go forward, for us we feel it’s an investment in sport," Barrett said.

"Any project, whatever a city or region goes on to do in the realm of sport for anything else, will perhaps be a little bit better because they’ve got some more knowledge and expertise that we’ve been able to bring to the table."

"It’s beneficial to us too: we learn more about a project earlier, we can help, we can guide, we can make suggestions, we can optimise, with the whole idea being that any project is the most sustainable one possible, the lowest cost possible and a project that’s most aligned with what a city or region is trying to do in its own community.

"For us that is the key thing now that the Games are here to adopt to a city or a region, it’s not the other way round, and I think in past processes, it was a little bit like we opened a bidding process for a given year and we said 'here’s what we need you to tell us, you figure it out and if you get the Games go away and do it'.

"Now what we’re saying is what are your concerns, what are the challenges in your region and in your communities, what are your long-term plans for the next 10 or 20 years or even longer, and how would hosting a Games fit into this long-term planning?

"The Games shouldn’t be the starting point for that, it should be how the Games can help what a city or a region or a community is trying to do for itself anyway, so there’s no one-size-fits all solution there.

"It really has to be contextual."

One of the criticisms levelled at the new bidding process is a lack of transparency, while for Brisbane 2032 there were allegations of a conflict of interest concerning Australian Olympic Committee President and IOC vice-president John Coates, who helped to oversee the change to the process.

IOC President Thomas Bach insisted that Coates had no input in Brisbane being recommended for exclusive negotiations, and claimed that it was a "very transparent procedure".

Barrett also defended the new process, and argued confidential discussions should not be mistaken for a lack of transparency.

"I would say transparency is really important for us, and I think it's a difference for us between transparency and enabling some conversations to be confidential if they want them to be," Barrett said.

"I think on transparency, all of the documents related to the new approach are on our website for anybody to see.

"Every document we've put on the website, the questionnaires, the reports, all the framework, anything to do with the new process is there.

"The new approach, the various stages to it, how it happens, why it happens, who does what, everything is there, and I think that's very transparent.

"I think this ability for a city or a region or a NOC to have a confidential discussion to road test some ideas is absolutely natural and normal, and not every meeting we would ever have would be open to the public anyway.

"You have a workshop, you have a meeting, those are the running of the business, but I think that's why I would make the difference.

"We are everyday trying to communicate this more, and I think when you do something new it takes time to get that out and get that across, especially when you've perhaps been in a situation and a process that's been largely the same for many decades and people are used to that.

"A lot of it happened during the pandemic, where everybody was locked down and we were not getting together so much.

"We were changing the way we did business to do a lot more virtually, which we found was a different way of doing things."

It was revealed on the final day of the 139^th IOC Session in Lausanne that the Executive Board is hopeful of entering a targeted dialogue with a candidate for the 2030 Winter Olympics in December with a view to awarding hosting rights for the Games at the Session in Mumbai next May.

Sapporo has long been viewed as a frontrunner for 2030, but is facing stiff competition from Salt Lake City, Vancouver, and a joint Pyrenees-Barcelona proposal.