Copenhagen  - The choice of Rio for the 2016 Olympics is an important move to ensure a bright future for the Olympic Movement, its supremo Jacques Rogge said on Saturday.

"We must ensure that the developing nations get fully participated. The choice of Rio was a step in the right direction," the International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said on the opening day of the 13th Olympic Congress.

Rio became the first South American city to be awarded the right to host the Olympics after the city beat Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago in a secret IOC ballot on Friday.

Several IOC members led by Swiss Denis Oswald stressed this universality and said that future Olympic bidding processes must be open for more cities outside the traditional Olympic powers.

Australia's Kevan Gosper said that the IOC principle of excellence was counterproductive in the aim for universality.

Swedish IOC member Gunilla Wiberg said it can not be that "only G8 or G20 states" are capable of hosting Olympics, while Italy's Francesco Ricci Bicci told German Press Agency dpa that future Olympics "will more and more go to the emerging countries."

Retaining the Olympics as the premier sports event is one key theme in the three-day congress (the first since 1994) bringing together all Olympic stakeholders - athletes, coaches, doctors, the IOC, national Olympic Committees, sports federations, the public and the media.

"The Games are milestones ... They have remodelled towns and changed lives," said French IOC member Jean-Claude Killy the day after US president Barack Obama had led a host of dignitaries at the 2016 vote.

But Killy also said that changes are necessary: "Routine is our major enemy ... We have to be in fashion but have to remain in our own world."

Killy named the inclusion of ski cross at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver "a breath of fresh air." Golf and rugby sevens hope for the IOC nod next week for 2016, but there are concerns that golf may not appeal to the youth of the world.

Speaking earlier on general terms, Rogge said that "sports is a peaceful tool in instilling values in young people" and called for the installation of a coaches commission and an ongoing fight against doping.

"We must make sure that the entourage acts in the best interest of the athletes," he said, dismissing a "win-at-all-cost mentality" because that would "not be a victory but a disgrace."

The athletes, for their part, want a bigger saying in the competition calendar to reduce injury risks, a saying on rule changes and more support in their education outside the playing fields.

Former sprint star Frank Fredericks said he was glad he could "fall back on my academic career" after his retirement.

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said that the IOC is close to obtaining official UN observer status.

"The UN general assembly took first steps. If all goes well it could start by the end of the year," Ban told the congress.

Ban said that the IOC and the UN shared common goals and that "we must join forces to combat negative aspects in sports," ranging from doping to violence and corruption.

Ban showed off a football - made from plastic bags and newspapers and used by children in a Nairobi slum - to highlight the importance of sport in all social and geographical parts of the world.

"I have travelled to countries mired in poverty. To communities struggling to survive. To war-ravaged places where all hope seems lost. Suddenly, a ball appears, made out of plastic bags or newspapers. We see sport gives life to hopes and dreams," he said.  dpa