LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The Olympic rings decorate everything here from the train station to the police uniforms, flaunting this city’s identity as the capital of international sports.
For more than a century, Lausanne has been home to the International Olympic Committee, inspiring dozens of sports organizations overseeing everything from baseball to taekwondo to put down roots, too.
Their world has been largely independent — lightly taxed, exempt from Swiss anticorruption laws, and ruled by its own arbitration court headquartered in a chateau here. It also generates serious money. Sports organizations bring more than a billion dollars to Switzerland annually, according to a six-year study published in 2015.