The Closed-Door Battle to Become IOC President

MT HANNACH
12 Min Read
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Late Wednesday evening, members of the Olympic International Committee met for a dinner at the Olympic Museum on the banks of Lake Geneva. The next morning, they would see presentations of seven candidates in the running to be their leader, a role that would be by most of the most important measures in international sports.

During the gathering of closed doors, the outgoing president, Thomas Bach, made sure that the members present – the people who determine who will possibly lead the IOC – were kept outside the candidates. It was, he jokes, so that they can enjoy their meals in peace.

It was a scene in accordance with the original and sometimes stifling rules of an election which will be decided when the members of the IOC vote in March in a seaside resort in the south of Greece.

The winner will assume the management of the organization which controls the Olympic Games, an event as prestigious as expensive and a diplomatic status higher as any other figure in the world of sport. But many candidates have criticized the fur of the rules and regulations surrounding the elections which, according to them, have embarrassed their ability to convey their message not only to the members of the IOC but also to the whole world.

The candidates are prohibited to hold debates, to express the opposition concerning the vision of a rival for the IOC or even to receive public mentions of members.

“What we consider to be candidates is to become the president of the largest sports movement in the world, and I think that, in balance, in transparency and integrity, the world has the right to know and this Let them represent “,” Prince Faisal Bin Al Hussein, one of the candidates, said, in a direct direct declaration in the heavy world of the 130 -year organization protocol.

The institution draws its members from the world of sport and beyond, with federation leaders rubbing their shoulders with leaders of trade, politics, business and – as in the case of Prince Faisal – World Royalty. Princess Anne, the younger sister of King Charles III of England, directs the appointment committee for what has been described as the most exclusive club in the world. (There are currently 110 members.)

Prince Faisal is the only royal in good faith among the seven candidates in the running to the presidency. But he is joined by what counts as the aristocracy of the IOC in the form of the Spanish businessman Juan Antonio Samaranch, whose father led the organization for two decades until 2001 and shaped a large part what it has become. The leaders of sports federations, including Sebastian Coe, are also leaders, including Sebastian Coe, the Olympic runner awarded by gold medal of the international head of the international track. And for the first time, there is a candidate: Kirsty Coventry, an Olympic swimmer champion of Zimbabwe, who would also be the first person in Africa to direct the IOC

For such a substantial election, a large part takes place in the dark, far from any form of public (or private) debate.

The Morning after the Dinner at the Museum, the candidates – All Staying at the Luxury Lausanne Palace, the longtime Haunt of the Ioc, which has followed Named for the Elder Samaranch – Wrere Taken in Black Mercedes Minivans to the Organization’s Headquarters at interval corresponding With the order in which they had to make 15 -minute presentations. It was the first and the only opportunity for them to speak to the entire membership. The officials had to put their mobile phones, the recordings were not authorized and the members were not allowed to ask questions.

The Scene and the Secrecy Prompt More Than One Official To Fume At The Process Being More Akin to A Papal Conclave, when the selection of a new pope after a secret voting by a gathering of cardinals is confirmed with white smoke emanating from the chimney of the Sistine chapel.

After having presented his vision to the members who, like the Catholic cardinals, will secretly vote, Mr. Samaranch said in an interview that he would have loved having recorded his speech. After all, he said, it was “the speech of my life”.

However, seated in a play not only bearing the name of his father, but also a great portrait of him, Mr. Samaranch, member of the best CIO card since 2012, said that he had not taken the time to Contested the rules of the elections, most of whom he said, he disagreed with.

Under regulations, the contact time with voters is seriously limited. The meetings in person, beyond the two days in Lausanne, are closely controlled, with strict requirements to give an opinion on such contact with the Ethics of the IOC. Telephone calls are allowed.

“Non-sensitive,” said Morinari Watanabe, a long-term Japan candidate who directs world gymnastics because the members were heated after the presentations. The next time they are all together, it’s the day before the vote.

Mr. Watanabe’s ideas include the transformation of the Olympic Games into a 24 -hour business out of five continents and rename it from the IOC, these are revolutionary thoughts for an organization whose approach to change can be glacial compared to the world of ‘business.

“The Olympic movement is a powerful movement,” said COE, easily the most recognizable of candidates beyond the world of the sports policy. “It should be the leadership thinking of sport, it should set the tone and style, and, my God, there is nothing like the Olympic Games.”

The winner will control an organization that generates nearly $ 8 billion per four -year Olympic cycle. But perhaps even more important, the role is considered to be the first diplomat in sport, a bridge in an increasingly permanent world, with a price at the Olympic summer games for which large powers are binding. Vladimir V. Putin, the chief of Russia, was the first to call Thomas Bach after his election in 2013.

Most members refused to offer an overview of which they planned to vote, or even fundamental questions about the characteristics they would like to see in a candidate. Luis Mejia Oviedo, a delegate of the Dominican Republic, seated in the hall furnished in oak of the Palais de Lausanne, only smiled and offered a handshake in response to each of the three questions on the elections.

Syed Shahid Ali, a Pakistanis who has been a member of the IOC for almost 30 years, said that the debate within the movement was slowly eroded, which gives members little say to crucial decisions. This was a regular criticism of the organization under Mr. Bach, a former German shooter.

“The IOC is an autonomous but quite private body in one way,” said Ali, looking at a door to open a door to Prince Albert II of Monaco to enter a lexus focused on the driver and start. “He controls global sport, therefore from this meaning, it is not so private. But from the internal functioning of its operation – it is quite private. »»

Many candidates, including Mr. Samaranch and Ms. Coventry, are members established for the best CIO card and have sworn to give members again a greater voice. This understands having his say in the most important choice of the organization: where the Olympic Games will take place. Under M. Bach, this choice was widely removed, the members evaluating a single preferred candidate put forward by the management of the IOC.

“They should have said it much earlier,” Ali said. “It shows the lack of courage of convictions or the fact that it is a reflection after the fact or that it could be that it is only applicable now that you are a candidate.”

With a largely impenetrable and diversified electorate, leading forecasts are a delicate task. There have been speculation that Ms. Coventry, who recently became a mother for the second time, has the support of the holder Mr. Bach. “I think it is very fair for all of us,” Coventry said at a press conference placed 10 minutes by candidate after their land. “I don’t think he came out for me.”

For the winner, there will be a list of bulging tasks, with a notable accent on the United States, where the largest television contract requires an update after a decade; The National Anti -Doping Agency is in the midst of an increasingly acrimonious war with the World Anti -Dope regulator; And the following summer Olympic Games – in Los Angeles in 2028 – are planned under a Mercurial Trump administration.

“These are great challenges, they will be in my game if I succeed,” said Mr. Coe.

With votes to obtain, candidates are now faced with a race against time to file a complaint. Mr. Samaranch hoped to bring together a few trains before leaving for their homes, companies and palates around the world. Smiling and making a gesture of Lasso, he hoped to gather as much as he could for dinner.

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