Athletics legend Coe to vie with six rivals for IOC presidency

LAUSANNE — World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe is the most high-profile of the seven candidates to have declared on Monday their bid to succeed International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.

Coe will face stiff opposition from, amongst others, Kirsty Coventry, bidding to become the first woman and African to head the IOC, and cycling boss David Lappartient.

The charismatic Briton, a two-time Olympic 1,500m champion, also faces challenges in the rules laid down last week by the IOC Ethics Commission.

Coe turns 68 on Sept 29, and, although there is room for maneuver to raise the retirement age of IOC members and presidents to 74, he will be older than that come the end of an eight-year mandate.

The election will be held at the IOC Session in Athens, which runs from March 18-21 next year.

Bach, 70, is standing down after serving 12 years. The German announced at the end of the Paris Games that he would not be seeking another term.

The other four candidates include two from Asia — another continent never to have had an IOC president — Jordan's Prince Feisal Al Hussein and Japanese gymnastics chief Morinari Watanabe.

Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, whose father was IOC president from 1980-2001 and transformed it into a commercial powerhouse, and a surprise entrant, ski federation president Johan Eliasch, round up the candidates.

Under the election rules Coe, Eliasch, Lappartient and Watanabe will all have to resign as heads of their respective federations and seek re-election as individual members at the Athens Session.

First up for the septet is presenting their respective programs to the IOC members at the turn of the year.

"The candidates will present their programs, in camera, to the full IOC membership on the occasion of a meeting to be held in Lausanne (Switzerland) in January 2025," read a short IOC statement unveiling the candidates.

There will be a transition period post election — not something Bach enjoyed when he succeeded Jacques Rogge in 2013 — with the new president and his team assuming control in June.

Bach has had a bumpy ride over the course of his tenure, with Russia causing him the most problems.

It is somewhat of an irony, given that it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who was the first to phone and congratulate the 1976 Olympic gold medal-winning fencer on his election in Buenos Aires in 2013.

First, there was the doping scandal, which cast a dark shadow over the Sochi Winter Games in 2014, and then Russia's conflict with Ukraine in 2022.

On both occasions, Coe took a stronger stand over banning Russians than Bach and the IOC.

This independent streak did not endear him to Bach.

'Big shoes'

Bach was seen by some to have handled Russia well, though others argued his hand was forced to impose strict eligibility conditions on those Russian and Belarusian athletes performing in Paris.

Away from Russia, he showed a steady hand when COVID-19 swept the globe, forcing the postponement, but not the cancellation, of the Tokyo Games.

Though they took place a year later in 2021, and the majority of events, exceptions being track cycling and road races, were without spectators due to COVID restrictions, they were judged to have been a success, just for taking place.

Bach will not depart to universal acclaim, but the IOC's former head of marketing Michael Payne believes he has done an outstanding job.

"Thomas Bach has been an incredibly successful president, and leaves the IOC in far stronger shape than when he took over in 2013," the 66-year-old Irishman told reporters.

Payne, who in nearly two decades at the IOC was widely credited with transforming its brand and finances through sponsorship, said his successor faces some mighty challenges.

"He leaves big shoes to fill and I am not sure everyone fully understands the true complexity of the job," said Payne.

"Bach has made it look all too easy. It is not — and bringing 206 countries (and regions) together and staging the world's largest event is not simple.

"The future is going to be even more complex — an increasing politicization of sport, a rapidly changing business and broadcast environment, AI and new technology.

"The challenges on the horizon are not straightforward."

AFP