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GENEVA (AP) – Two former Olympic champions are in the running to be the next president of the IOC. So is the prince of a kingdom in the Middle East and the son of a former president. World leaders in cycling, gymnastics and skiing are also playing.
The International Olympic Committee published on Monday a list of seven potential candidates who are about to stand in the election in March to succeed the outgoing president Thomas Bach for the next eight years.
Only one woman, IOC executive board member Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe, took part in the competition to lead an organization that has had only male presidents in its 130-year history. Eight of those presidents were from Europe and one from the United States.
Coventry and Sebastian Coe have won two gold medals in swimming and running, respectively. Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan is also on the IOC board.
Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr from Spain is one of the four vice-presidents of the IOC, whose father was president for 21 years until 2001.
David Lappartient is the president of cycling’s governing body, Morinari Watanabe leads gymnastics, and Johan Eliasch is the president of the International Skiing and Snowboarding Federation. Coe is the president of World Athletics track.
The seven managed to meet a deadline of Sunday to send a letter of intent to Bach, who must leave the job next year after reaching the maximum of 12 years in the job. Bach refused at the Paris Olympics last month to try to change IOC rules in order to stay in office longer.
A formal list of candidates should be confirmed in January, three months before the March 18-21 election meeting in Greece, near the site of Ancient Olympia.
Only IOC members are eligible to stand as candidates, with votes cast by the rest of the 111-strong membership of the Olympic body.
The IOC is one of the most unique clubs in world sport. Its members come from European and Middle Eastern royalty, leaders of international sports bodies, former and current Olympic athletes, politicians and diplomats along with industrialists, including some billionaires like Eliasch.
It creates one of the most inconspicuous and unusual election campaigns in world sport, with members prevented from publicly endorsing their choice.
Campaigning restrictions on candidates include a block on publishing videos, organizing public meetings and participating in public debates. The IOC will hold a closed-door meeting for candidates to address voters in January in its home city of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Ideally, the top job at the IOC calls for a deep knowledge of sports management, understanding the needs of athletes and nimble skills in global politics.
The president oversees an organization that earns billions of dollars in revenue from broadcasting and sponsorship deals for the Olympics and employs hundreds of staff in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Coe has been widely regarded as the most qualified candidate. A two-time Olympic champion in the 1,500 metres, he was later an elected British legislator in the 1990s, led the organizing committee of the London 2012 Olympic Games and has presided over the World Athletics for nine years.
However, he faces potential legal obstacles to his ability to serve a full eight-year mandate. The IOC has an age limit of 70 for members, while Coe will be 68 on election day. The rules allow a special exception to remain for another four years, but that would mean a six-year presidency unless those limits are changed.
Coventry, who turned 41 on Monday, also has government experience as the appointed sports minister in Zimbabwe.
The only woman ever to stand as an IOC presidential candidate was Anita DeFrantz, a former Olympic rower from the United States. She was eliminated in the first round of voting in a five-candidate election in 2001, won by Jacques Rogge.
Lappartient is also president of the French national Olympic body and has gained strong momentum from the Paris Summer Games. He leads the French Alps project chosen to host the 2030 Winter Games and was chosen by Bach to oversee a long-term project sealed in Paris that will see Saudi Arabia host the Esports Olympics until 2035.
Eliasch is perhaps the most surprising candidate after being elected as an IOC member in Paris less than two months ago. The Swedish-British owner of sportswear brand Head got 17 “no” votes, a remarkably high number in Olympic politics.
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