KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: No woman has ever served as president of the International Olympic Committee but the possibility of history being made has emerged with publication of names of the seven contenders to succeed Thomas Bach.
The German is coming to the compulsory end of his 12 year, two-term reign since being elected to follow Belgian Jacques Rogge in Buenos Aires in 2013. Potential candidates had to register their interest with Bach on Sunday.
Bach’s legacy will be mixed. He has kept funds flowing to everyone’s benefit, steered the Olympic movement successfully through the Covid crisis and opened the door to the exploding esports community.
On the other hand he steered a waveringly muddled line over Russia’s exclusion and the transgender issue, attracting critics from both sides of the arguments.
Registered and approved contenders to the Bach succession include six men and one woman. She is the fast-rising Zimbabwean former Olympic swimmer Kirsty Coventry who is considered among Bach’s favourites.
Notable among her rivals are Juan Antonio Samaranch – son of a former president – the World Athletics supremo Lord Sebastian Coe and David Lappartient, head of the Union Cycliste Internationale. The other three include long-serving IOC member Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, plus Johan Eliasch and Morinari Watanabe, respective presidents of the the International Ski Federation and International Gymnastics Federation.
Johan Eliasch, Watanabe, Coe and Lappartient are all challenged both by the fact that their membership of the IOC is conditional on their roles as sports federation leaders.
Coe’s challenge
Coe has several other issues to surmount.
One is his age. At 67 he would be within the 70-year age limit to stand for the presidency’s initial eight-year term but would be to old to stand for the second four-year term.
Second, he is no particular favourite of Bach after World Athletics’ blanket ban on Russian athletes, decisive stance on transgender competitors and introduction of prize money for Olympic Games event winners.
Next January an extraordinary IOC conference will convene in Lausanne to hear presentations from the candidates with the election of latest successor to the legacy of Pierre de Coubertin being elected at the IOC Session scheduled for March 18-21 next year.
The 10th – and perhaps first female – IOC president will be elected at a luxury resort in Costa Navarino, south-western Greece. Bach will then continue in office until next June 24.
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