The only set-piece campaign event before the March 20 poll in Greece let each candidate speak for 15 minutes only to IOC members who include royal family members and former heads of government plus sports officials and former athletes. The speeches were not broadcast and the audience could not take phones or devices into the room. Nor could voters ask questions of their seven colleagues competing for perhaps the most influential job in sports, and one that increasingly has a role in real world politics.
It is a quirky process set by the IOC to decide its first contested presidential election since , and to find a successor for Thomas Bach who has reached the limit of 12 years in office. Four are presidents of Olympic sports bodies: Johan Eliasch from skiing, David Lappartient from cycling, and Morinari Watanabe from gymnastics.
Coe also leads World Athletics, organized the London Olympics, and is widely viewed as the most qualified candidate. Three are members of the Bach-chaired IOC executive board: Samaranch, Prince Feisal and Coventry, the sports minister of Zimbabwe who would be the first woman to lead the Olympic movement in its year history. She has been regarded as Bach's preferred choice.
This week she had said "I don't feel that he Bach is out campaigning for me. Bach is likely not to use his right to vote alongside the eclectic mix of invitees to become IOC members, who currently number They also include diplomats, industrialists and Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh.
Few details were known about the mood of IOC members. The winner on March 20 will formally take office in June after a three-month transition period with Bach, a German lawyer and Olympics gold medalist in fencing whose presidential style is widely seen as micro-managing.
