The eclectic members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are gathering in Greece to decide who will formally succeed Thomas Bach as the body’s president at a ceremony in Switzerland on 23 June, “Olympic Day”.
The position of IOC president “carries significant diplomatic sway” not just in sport but in global politics, said The Guardian’s chief sports reporter Sean Ingle. One of the first people to call Bach and congratulate him on winning the 2013 election was Vladimir Putin. Yet the selection process is so “secretive and strange” it would “make a Vatican cardinal wince”.
‘No one tells you the truth’
The election is being contested by several sporting organisation presidents, as well as a prince, a politician from Zimbabwe and Sebastian Coe, the former Olympic champion and current president of World Athletics.
Coe is a well-known personality but in the “corridors of the IOC’s headquarters”, he is a “divisive figure”, said Lawrence Ostlere, senior sports writer for The Independent. He’s been “openly critical on a range of issues” and his “outspoken approach has often ruffled feathers”, leaving him “loathed” by some senior IOC figures, according to a source.
The seven hopefuls are banned from holding debates or critiquing each other’s policies and the rules also bar candidates from publishing campaign videos. Members are also not been allowed to publicly endorse their choice but there are whispers behind closed doors. “Everybody tells you who they’re voting for, and no one tells you the truth,” a member told Ostlere.
‘No Q&A sessions’
Campaigning is restricted to a single “15-minute PowerPoint presentation” given by each candidate to the IOC’s curious electorate, said Ingle. The just-over 100 members include a former school teacher from Cape Verde, a Bhutanese prince, Princess Anne and the Oscar-winning actor Michelle Yeoh. The process is secretive and tightly controlled: IOC rules state that, for each candidate, “at the end of their time slot, the microphone will be switched off automatically” and “no Q&A sessions” will be permitted.
Voting starts on Thursday at a resort hotel, in a conclave-esque sitting behind closed doors, where even IOC staff must leave the room so only voters and essential election monitors remain. Members will have their phones and tablets “collected and stored”, said AP News.
No one is expected to win an absolute majority in the first round, so, until there is a winner, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated until a winner is finally decided and the doors will open.
Whoever becomes the next president will lead the IOC into a “challenging world”, said Ostlere, “facing down the climate crisis, deeply divisive issues of gender, the advancement of AI” and a “rapidly changing entertainment-scape”.