Samaranch, Coe and Coventry vie for sport’s most powerful position as IOC president

The names Samaranch and Coe are synonymous with the Olympic Games, for slightly differing reasons, and in Olympia, Greece, on Thursday they will be the two names the sporting world will closely monitor.

Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr and Lord Sebastian Coe are the favourites in a tight race to become the new president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

There are seven candidates on the ballot to succeed Thomas Bach.

Thomas Bach. (Photo: Tullio M Puglia / Getty Images)

The candidates are: international cycling chief David Lappartient, current IOC vice-president Samaranch Jr, World Athletics president Coe, multiple Olympic swimming champion Kirsty Coventry, who is Zimbabwe’s sports minister, Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan, International Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe and multimillionaire Johan Eliasch, who heads the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.

It’s an impressive lineup, with Coventry aiming to be the first woman to attain the top job at the IOC. The seven-time Olympic swimming medallist could spring a surprise. She is believed to be Bach’s preferred candidate.

Kirsty Coventry. (Photo: Fabrice Coffrini / Pool / Getty Images)

Favourites

Over the last few months of intense lobbying, Coe and Samaranch appear to be locked in a two-horse race, with Coventry on their heels.

The other candidates all possess the right credentials to be considered for the job, but the reality is that Samaranch and Coe have separated themselves because they are already prominent administrators.

Coe is the president of World Athletics. Track and field is the centrepiece of any Summer Olympics and Coe has run a good ship since 2015.

He is a strong advocate for athletes being renumerated and was instrumental in the unpopular move to give track and field medallists prize money at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The IOC is a wealthy organisation, which makes the idea of not paying athletes, until Coe drove the move, even more absurd. But it could have created some enemies for Coe on the IOC council.

Coe was the chairperson of the London 2012 Olympic Committee, delivering a high-quality Games, and was a member of the British Parliament.

Sebastian Coe. (Photo: George Mattock/Getty Images)

Samaranch Jr is the IOC vice-president and has been an IOC member for 24 years. He is the son of Juan Antonio Samaranch, who led the IOC for 21 years as its seventh president. Samaranch Jr is the epitome of IOC royalty.

Samaranch Sr’s tenure was marred by the Salt Lake City Olympics scandal, in which an investigation uncovered the paying of bribes. It was arguably the biggest scandal in Olympic history.

Samaranch Sr was also a member of Franco’s fascist party, and while it’s unfair to tarnish his son with the sins of the father, it is a worrying piece of history — especially in a political world that is being driven further and further right.

Samaranch Jr is an investment banker by profession, but his name carries weight within such an insular organisation.

Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. (Photo: Fabrice Coffrini / Pool/ AFP)

All the candidates presented their vision for the IOC behind closed doors earlier this month where no phones, recording devices or notes were allowed.

Key battlegrounds

While their presentations to the 109 IOC members, including federation chiefs, national Olympic committee presidents, royalty and billionaires among others, was secret, the candidates have spoken to the media.

The key battlegrounds are the sustainable future of the Summer Olympics — the IOC’s biggest cash generator — the question of transgender and DSD (differences of sex development) athletes and political reform.

World Athletics, under Coe, has banned transgender athletes in the women’s category at international events.

“My position is the position that I’ve always held, and I think delivered through World Athletics,” Coe said when asked at a media briefing about his position on the thorny issue.

“This is also a societal issue. We’re not hermetically sealed in sport, we have to clearly understand the mores of the day and some of the cultural influences.

“I have influences ethnically from India and other parts of the world, so I don’t see the world from the wrong end of a telescope in Europe, I have very much a global view.

“But the guiding principle for me is really simple, and it sits with the word ‘integrity’ — the integrity of competition and the promotion and integrity of women’s sport.

“And if you lose sight of that, and you don’t have policies that are clear and unambiguous, then you are going to get into difficult and dangerous territory.

“So, my position hasn’t altered. We are very clear that we want women entering our sport, young girls entering our sport, to feel that there are no barriers to what they can do, and that is why the regulations that we have agreed around DSD and transgender are really important and non-negotiable.”

Samaranch took a similar line to Coe, although he suggested that sporting federations should set their own agendas.

“Let me try to be very, very clear, because it’s pretty straightforward,” Samaranch told the media.

“Five years ago, when we started dealing with this problem at the executive board of the IOC, the idea, and it was very well thought of, was women’s sport has to be safe and fair.

“Since safety and fairness would be different for different sports, we passed on the responsibility of executing that safe and fair proposition to the international federations.

“But no matter what we want, it’s the reality that counts, and the reality is that in Paris, we saw the social alarm about transgender and DSD, and the world is expecting from the IOC what we have claimed for so long — the leadership in the sports world.

“So if I make it there, to the presidency, I will make sure that the IOC leads across the board on how women’s sport has to be kept safe and fair and we will do that immediately, based on scientific evidence that is abundant nowadays.”

Coventry’s opinion on the transgender and DSD debate followed a similar theme: “I think that we as the IOC need to take a little bit more of a leadership role,” she said.

“I would like to sit down with all the international federations and come up with a common framework for all of us to work with.

“It will obviously depend on the sport. We have equestrian where men and women already compete against each other, so the topic is not as big in certain sports, but each federation, over the last few years, has really worked quite diligently with their medical teams to come up with rules and regulations that they feel best protects the female category for their sport.”

Prize money

Samaranch and Coventry are opposed to prize money at the Olympics, which is one clear difference from Coe’s stance, although the World Athletics boss doesn’t envisage handing out prize money to all sports immediately.

“I strongly disagree [with prize money],” said Samaranch. “First, let me say, I strongly agree that the champions and the sportsmen that make a living out of that, and become the living and moving inspiration for the youth of the world, have to be very well compensated, and they have to be very successful in their lives.

“But they have their national Olympic committees, their sponsors, their countries, to gratify them for their successes, and the World Championships and the World Cups in their own specialities.

“The Olympic Games, to me, are different. The Olympic Games are at the pinnacle of world sports. Up there at the top of the pyramid, we have the Olympic Games that have generated in the last quadrennial $7.6-billion.

“That money goes back to the base of the pyramid, through financing the next organising committees, through the national Olympic committees, through the international federations and through our solidarity programmes. I think that taking any money from there to compensate the current champions is unnecessary.”

Coventry, who was head of the IOC’s Athletes Commission, took a similar line.

“Personally, I’m not a fan of prize money,” said Coventry. “I would rather try and identify new ways of better supporting athletes on their journey to becoming an Olympian.

“For me, as an athlete, that was the hardest time. It was hard to find sponsorship, it was hard on my family, and the Olympic Solidarity scholarship that I managed to receive really added a lot of value.

“I would rather put more focus on identifying direct funding to athletes before they get to the Olympic Games, and then after the Olympic Games, once they retire how do we help them in that next phase of life?”

Coe took a slightly different view: “Nobody should assume that if I become president of the International Olympic Committee that prize money will simply be implemented because we did it in World Athletics.

“That is a much broader conversation. And I also recognise that this is not a one-size-fits-all.

“We did it for a very particular reason in athletics, and that was that many of our competitors have transferable skills, in fact, envious skills for many federations out there.” DM 

Fact box

By Reuters

Kirsty Coventry (Age: 41; Nationality: Zimbabwe)

• Qualifications: Chairperson of the Athlete Commission (2018-2021). In 2023, she was reappointed as Zimbabwe’s minister for sports, art and recreation.


• IOC member since 2013.


• A former Olympic swimmer, she won seven medals (including two gold) to become the most decorated Olympian from Africa while she was also named Zimbabwe’s Sports Woman of the Year.


• Claimed in her manifesto that the IOC must prioritise athletes’ mental health and physical recovery throughout their careers and beyond while counting on the expertise of international federations at various events.


• Also says she seeks a zero-tolerance approach to corruption, doping and unethical behaviour.

Sebastian Coe (Age: 68; Nationality: Britain)

• Qualifications: President of World Athletics, organised and delivered 2012 London Olympics, former member of British Parliament.


• IOC member since 2020.


• Four Olympic medals including two golds in the 1500 metres and two silvers in the 800 metres while he also held multiple world records.


• Claimed in his manifesto that there is “too much power in the hands of too few people” and that decision-making processes are “out of balance”.


• As World Athletics chief, he made the decision to introduce prize money ($50,000) for Paris 2024 Olympic champions in all 48 athletics events.

Prince Feisal al Hussein (Age: 61; Nationality: Jordan)

• Qualifications: President of the Jordan Olympic Committee, chairperson of Jordan Motorsport, executive board member of Olympic Council of Asia, member of the executive council of the Association of National Olympic Committees.


• IOC member since 2010, member of the executive board since 2019.


• A former wrestler and rally co-driver, Prince Feisal was also in the Royal Jordanian Air Force, holding various positions between 1981 and 2017, including as its commander.


• Claimed in his manifesto that he wants a review of the dates for the Summer Games so more cities can bid to host the Olympics while he also believes Esports is the future.

David Lappartient (Age: 51; Nationality: France)

• Qualifications: President of Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee.


• IOC member since 2022.


• A former cyclist at the regional level in France, Lappartient also served as the mayor of Sarzeau in Brittany and helped multiple local councillor mandates.


• Claimed in his manifesto that he hopes to see the Olympics hosted in Africa for the first time while he also wants gender parity in IOC membership by 2036, to rein in IOC spending and a reduction in the number of commissions.

Johan Eliasch (Age: 63; Nationality: Sweden)

• Qualifications: President of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, former special representative of the prime minister of the United Kingdom.


• IOC member since 2024.


• A Swedish-British businessman, Eliasch was formerly the chief executive of sporting goods company Head. He was named among the top 50 richest people in the UK by The Sunday Times with a net worth of £4-billion.


• Claimed in his manifesto that the IOC must strike a balance between sponsorship goals, television rights exploitation, digital strategies and new commercialisation models.


• Eliasch is also opposed to prize money for Olympic athletes.

Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr (Age: 65; Nationality: Spain)

• Qualifications: Member of the Spanish National Olympic Committee since 1989, first vice-president of the International Modern Pentathlon Union since 1996, CEO and founding partner of GBS Finance.


• IOC member since 2010 and member of the executive board from 2012-2016 and since 2019. IOC vice-president from 2016-2020 and since 2022.


• Son of former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch.


• Claimed in his manifesto that the IOC must extend the retirement age of its members to 75 and says he is a proponent of protecting women in sports, seeking “unambiguous distinctions between men’s and women’s categories”.


• With banking experience under his belt, Samaranch also wants the IOC to use its insights to establish a $1-billion investment fund where investors will provide the necessary capital.

Morinari Watanabe (Age: 66; Nationality: Japan)

• Qualifications: President of the International Gymnastics Federation, former general secretary of the Japan Gymnastics Association, member of the Japan Olympic Committee.


• IOC member since 2018.


• Claimed in his manifesto that the Olympics should be staged in five cities from the five continents (10 sports per host city) at the same time so the Games are broadcast and streamed 24 hours a day.

Also wants to change the term of office of the IOC president to a maximum of 12 years (from eight). DM