(Budapest) World Athletics president Sebastian Coe may consider running for president of the International Olympic Committee once Thomas Bach’s term expires in 2025.
“I’m not dismissing the idea, like I’m not launching my candidacy,” he said. A perfect answer, since publicly campaigning for one of the most powerful positions in sports is not allowed, even though Coe’s name keeps coming up in this conversation.
The 66-year-old double Olympic champion was less than 24 hours from being re-elected unopposed for a third term at the head of the international athletics federation, on the eve of the launch of the Budapest Worlds on Saturday.
Coe used this question about the IOC to speak of his boundless passion for his current position, indicating that there was a lot to be done over the next four years, including modernizing the athletics calendar in order to that sport regains a prominent place on the international scene.
“When we talk about making our sport more relevant in the lives of young people, we’re talking about making it relevant to their lifestyle,” Coe said. There are several aspects that need to be reviewed and all my attention is focused on them. »
Samaranch and Hoevertsz are currently vice-presidents, while Coventry leads the Coordination Commission for the 2032 Summer Games, in Brisbane, Australia.
Coe and Bach have shared the IOC political scene since 1981, when they were among the first athletes invited to a meeting to help change the Summer Games, which was increasingly a competition for professionals. Should he ever become president, Coe’s stint at the helm of the IOC could very well resemble his first eight years at the helm of World Athletics. The organization could find itself transformed after a decade under Bach.
Under his leadership, World Athletics took the toughest stance of any sport on Russia and its state doping system. Currently, athletes from Russia are excluded from all international athletics competitions due to the invasion of Ukraine. These strict policies run counter to those put forward by the IOC and most of the Olympic Movement.
Despite these differences, Coe’s curriculum vitae – which notably includes the presidency of the organizing committee of the London Games in 2012 – has earned him a place in the IOC from 2020.
But Coe is not white as snow.
Coe broke a personal professional agreement with Nike in 2011 when he was vice-president of the IAAF, the international federation’s previous name, conceding “it didn’t look good”. Almost at the same time, the federation overruled its nomination procedures and awarded the 2021 Worlds (moved to 2022 due to COVID-19) to Eugene, Oregon, where Nike is a major player.
He had strongly suggested that Eugene apply for 2021 after being excluded from the organization of the 2019 World Championships, while ensuring that he had not lobbied for Eugene with decision-makers.
The Briton replaced Diack in 2015 and has pushed through several successful reforms, from the establishment in 2017 of the Athletics Integrity Unit, which oversees doping cases in a sport greatly affected by this scourge.
