The announced departure of Thomas Bach has launched the race for his succession at the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which will be decided in March 2025: from the media-friendly Sebastian Coe to the more discreet favourites of the Olympic circles, here is a first review of the contenders.
Seb Coe “thinks”
It is no surprise that the British Sebastian Coe launched the first skirmish: tipped for years, the head of World Athletics admitted on Sunday that he was thinking of running for the presidency of the Olympic body next March.
“The opportunity has presented itself and obviously I have to think about it,” said the two-time Olympic 1,500m champion.
The 67-year-old former Conservative MP – which would limit him, under IOC rules, to a single eight-year term – reeled off his CV: organiser of the 2012 London Olympics, chairman of the British Olympic Committee and then head of “the number one Olympic sport, athletics”.
In addition to his sporting aura, Coe can boast of having straightened out since 2015 an organization weighed down by his predecessor Lamine Diack, convicted for his involvement in the cover-up of Russian doping.
However, he has attracted a lot of enmity in the Olympic world by deciding to award bonuses to gold medallists at the Paris Olympics, without consulting anyone, while most international federations cannot keep up financially.
His uncompromising positions, including the outright banishment of Russian athletes, also contrast with the balancing act of Thomas Bach, who had reinstated them under a neutral banner at the request of part of the Olympic world.
Hoevertz-Coventry, natural runners-up
If previous IOC elections have taught us anything, it is that a winner rarely emerges from outside, and has instead built his or her career by ticking a series of boxes: accession to the executive board, to a few high-profile positions including supervision of an edition of the Olympic Games, with a bonus for Olympians, i.e. former athletes who have participated in the Games.
While the IOC has never been led by a woman, two are favoured by the experts in Lausanne: Nicole Hoevertz, 60, a Dutch woman from the Caribbean island of Aruba, and Kirsty Coventry, 40, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Sports.
The two leaders, members of the IOC executive, were very visible during the 142e session that preceded the Paris Olympics, since Hoevertz chairs the coordination commission for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and Coventry chairs the coordination commission for the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.
IOC Vice-President Nicole Hoevertz is a polyglot and a lawyer – just like Bach – represented Aruba in synchronized swimming at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and has been through all the key commissions, including the one responsible for validating Russian and Belarusian athletes under a neutral flag in the spring.
A former swimmer, Kirsty Coventry has a more impressive Olympic record (7 medals including 2 gold in 5 editions), has chaired the IOC Athletes’ Commission and has government experience, but has a slightly more modest Olympic record than her elder.
David Lappartient on all fronts
President of the Morbihan departmental council in Brittany, of the International Cycling Union and of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, where will the ambitious David Lappartient stop?
At 51, the Breton has no background as an athlete and is not a member of the IOC executive board, but chairs the e-sports board, which has just awarded the first Olympic Games of electronic sports to Saudi Arabia.
Asked on Sunday about the upcoming IOC election, Lappartient dodged the issue, saying he was “focused on the Olympic Games” and preferred to pay tribute to Thomas Bach’s choice to leave “a bit like Nelson Mandela”, by not seeking one mandate too many.