Race for International Olympic Committee presidency enters home stretch

Pylos, Greece — The battle for the most powerful job in world sport is hurtling toward its climax as International Olympic Committee (IOC) members descend on Greece this week to crown a new president.

With Thomas Bach’s reign nearing its final curtain, all seven contenders are making their last plays, hoping they have done enough to land the ultimate prize.

Bach is stepping down after 12 years in charge, and his potential successor will need a majority of the 100-odd IOC votes on Thursday to claim victory.

The candidates are international cycling chief David Lappartient, IOC vice-president Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, multiple Olympic swimming champion Kirsty Coventry, who is Zimbabwe’s sports minister, and Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein of Jordan.

International Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe and Olympic newcomer and multimillionaire Johan Eliasch, who heads the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, complete the list of candidates.

The winner of Thursday’s vote, held in a seaside resort near the southern Greek town of Pylos, will shape world sport along with international sports federations, national Olympic committees and the IOC’s top sponsors.

The next IOC president must also immediately tackle a number of issues to secure continued success of the Olympic Games, the main product of the multi-billion dollar IOC operation.

Among them are the establishment of clear competition rules for transgender athletes, an issue that could potentially create friction with the US government, after President Donald Trump excluded transgender athletes from competitions in February.

Transgender athletes

The IOC allows transgender athletes to take part in the Games but it is under pressure to come up with a universal rule instead of relying on each separate sports federation’s decisions.

The relationship with Trump will also prove crucial for the Los Angeles 2028 summer Olympics. All candidates have highlighted the support of the Games from Trump with Lappartient saying the IOC would also need to secure its autonomy.

The new president will also need to deal with the issue of Russia, whose Olympic committee has been banned for violating the Olympic Charter in relation to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Some of its athletes competed as neutrals at 2024’s Paris Olympics.

Bach’s departure comes with the organisation in a financially robust position, having secured $7.3bn from media rights, sponsorship and other revenue streams for 2025-28 and $6.2bn in contracts for 2029-2032.

Last week the IOC also announced a $3.0bn extension of NBCUniversal’s US Olympic media rights until 2036, but the departure of several sponsors in 2024 has seen calls for changes to its marketing structure.

In order to land the job the candidates will go through several rounds of voting with a majority unlikely for any in the first rounds. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated in each round.

For Olympic champion Coe the limited access to his fellow members to present his plans, due to strict IOC rules, was far from ideal.

"Is it a good exercise in selecting the next leadership? No. I think there are more inclusive ways of doing that," he said last week.

"More access to the members, more transparency, more open. It has been difficult to engage. I don’t think those are the guiding principles of an election."

While there is no clear frontrunner for the post as was the case when then-favourite Bach swept to victory in 2013, Coe, Samaranch and Coventry, long seen as Bach’s preferred choice, are considered to have an edge over the other candidates.

It remains to be seen in which direction the membership, which includes sports administrators, entrepreneurs, royalty and billionaires, wants the Olympic Games to take.

Reuters