- Lord Coe has been confirmed as one of seven candidates for IOC presidency
- Former gold medallist swimmer Kirsty Coventry is also in contention
Lord Sebastian Coe has formally staked his claim to the most powerful job in sport despite severe barriers to him becoming president of the International Olympic Committee.
An IOC letter was sent last week to its 111 members outlining the criteria to replace Thomas Bach next year and it cast doubt on Coe’s eligibility for the position, with Olympic insiders interpreting the rules as a manoeuvre to keep him from the post.
But the 67-year-old president of World Athletics has pushed ahead with his bid and was confirmed among the seven candidates in a list published by the IOC on Monday.
Coe will face competition from Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, son of the late former IOC president, as well as Zimbabwean sports minister and former swimming gold medallist Kirsty Coventry, and David Lappartient, who is the French head of cycling’s global governing body.
Prince Feisal of Jordan, British-Swedish multi-millionaire businessman Johan Eliasch and international gymnastics federation chief Morinari Watanabe of Japan are also in the running, with Bach rumoured to be privately pushing for Coventry.
Lord Coe has been confirmed as one of seven candidates for IOC presidency
There are six other confirmed candidates who are looking to replace Thomas Bach
Former swimming gold medallist Kirsty Coventry is also in contention for the presidency
As a double Olympic champion who delivered the London 2012 Games, and then took a hardline on Russian doping and gender issues in his current post, Coe is viewed by many outside the tent as the outstanding candidate. But in the complex and frequently Machiavellian realm of IOC politics he faces a significant challenge to get elected at their session in Greece next March.
The scale of Coe’s task was illustrated in last week’s letter sent by the IOC ethics committee to its members, restating the age limit of 70 for members, with the possibility of a one-off four-year extension. With Coe turning 68 this month, that would mean only a six-year presidency when the term is slated to run for eight years – those limits would need to change.
The letter also said the president would need to be an IOC member for a full term of office and Coe’s complication is that his current membership is via his seat at World Athletics, which he would forfeit upon election. As with the matter of his age, insiders believe there are solutions on both fronts, but they do present as hurdles.
