ATHENS – Although the International Olympic Committee’s headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland – not Greece, where the games were founded – candidates to be the next President were near the ancient site to make their pitches.
The meeting opening at the Olympia, where the games began, with attendants also at the 5-star Costa Navarino luxury resort as IOC members met for the process that will choose a successor to President Thomas Bach, a German lawyer and fencing gold medalist.
He has held the top job since 2013, the ninth President of the committee that oversees the games that are held every four years in different cities, although some have held the games more than once.
At the 144th Session, Greece proposed that the birthplace of the Ancient Olympics become the permanent venue for the election of all IOC presidents in the future.
The seven candidates are hopeful to be the 10th, said U.S. News & World Report, including another Olympic two-time gold medalist at 1500 meters, Britain’s Sebastian Coe, in a dazzling event on the Ionian Sea.
The winner of the presidential election will lead the world’s wealthiest multi-sports organization with revenues of about $7 billion per four-year cycle, several times mired in scandals over the selection process and cases of corruption.
Kirsty Coventry, Zimbabwe’s two-time Olympic swimming champion is considered one of the favorites and would be the first woman to hold the post if she wins and stopped to make only a brief comment to German media.
Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, son of the IOC’s seventh president who led the body from 1980 to 2001, said, “It’s very easy in this (Olympic) world, so close, to confuse a smile for a vote, a friendship for a vote, a nice word for a vote.”
He added that, “We all have to be very careful in making that translation. It’s a very good system. All the IOC members have one thing which is extraordinarily precious, which is a vote and its confidentiality.
“That gives each one of us the full independence to decide whatever we think is better. And that we will only know, it’s only possible to know when the real votes are cast. So we will see,” he said, hoping he’d be the choice.
French candidate David Lappartient, head of the world cycling federation, insisted the race was wide open, and that he expects multiple rounds of voting before a decisive winner emerges and not an easy race.
With just over 100 ballots set to be cast at the Greek seaside resort the winner will need an outright majority. If nobody secures a majority, the lowest scorer is axed, triggering another round of voting until one candidate emerges victorious.
“In the race, still in the race,” Lappartient said. “I think that it’s riding fast, but I’m still in the first part of the bunch. I’ve not been dropped from the bunch, so I still believe it’s possible. I respect my fellow colleagues, also candidates, but I think I’m one of the potential options to be the winner.”
Other candidates Johan Eliasch and Morinari Watanabe would not speculate. Japanese Watanabe, head of the world gymnastics federation, smiled and simply said: “I am waiting,” while president of the world Ski and Snowboard Federation Eliasch said: “We shall see tomorrow,” about the March 20 vote.
The final candidate, Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, said: “I have spoken to more members in the last 3-4 months than in the last 4 years, and that for me has been the great takeaway of this – engagement. This is a global community and we should use that for our advantage.”
