The original Olympic peace, i.e. the one in ancient Greece many centuries before the birth of Christ, was supposed to ensure that the participants were not attacked on their way to the games, that the host city was not attacked while they were taking place – and that everyone got home safely after the games were over. Then you could start fighting again. The thinking is still alive. The modern edition starts one week before the opening ceremony of the Olympics and ends one week after the conclusion of the Paralympics. So Sunday 15 September. This day is – not so – coincidentally also the deadline for announcing his candidacy as the new president of the International Olympic Committee, IOC. In other words, the position as the sports world’s most powerful and strongest and most influential. OLYMPIC CHIEF: Thomas Bach with an Olympic flag during the Games in Paris. Photo: Reuters A president packs up Germany’s Thomas Bach announced in Paris that he is following the organisation’s current regulations and will step down in 2025 after the maximum 12 years in office. The Games in Paris defined a new future for what we can call the concept of the Olympics. A reborn magic in which one had almost lost faith existed, after an increasingly dense cloud cover over the future of the Olympics after a series of Putin games in Sochi in 2014, the traffic jam in Rio in 2016, the empty ski arenas in Pyeongchang in 2018, the pandemic empty the stands in Tokyo in 2021 and the barren artificial snow dystopia in Beijing in 2022. Paris was a fireworks display of a people’s party. With a framework as grand as it gets. And not least with an attention and enthusiasm around many of the new sports and exercises that you never quite thought the IOC was close to being able to create. Thomas Bach always wants Paris, to use film terminology. And with that also the perfect full stop. As he obviously also understood himself. And proclaimed his final farewell on what is known as Olympic Day on June 23 next year. POWERFUL SCENE: Here on the beach volleyball court in front of the Eiffel Tower, Norway took Olympic bronze. Photo: NTB Democracy’s man nonetheless With that he triggered a year-long tension around whether he would be willing to listen to forces that wanted to find ways to extend the German’s presidency. And many breathed a sigh of relief. What the IOC needed least of all now was an internal rivalry around the legislation and not least a big debate about the obviously anti-democratic nature of such a proposal. Bach himself was central to the reform efforts to give the IOC a much greater and more modern degree of transparency after the corruption scandal surrounding the Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002. Including a very important limitation on the number of terms one can be president. Now he showed that he still stood by it. In that way, he somehow secured his democratic legacy – but at the same time lost full control over what happens from now until the election in a But nobody should say he isn’t trying. “New times call for new leaders,” said Bach in Paris. As he fought to hold back his tears. The fight against Coe It was probably the result of feelings about having to leave the privileged position. But could have been in favor of the idea that the successor should be called Sebastian Coe. The British lord who is currently president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, WA. It is hard to argue that Coe is not the best candidate, as a former active Olympic champion, as the boss of the successful London 2012 Olympics and as the current leader of the biggest Olympic sport. CANDIDATE: Many point to Sebastian Coe (right) as a possible successor to Thomas Bach. Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP Coe actually says it quite clearly and immodestly himself. And concludes that he has everything it takes to take on the role, despite the fact that it is strictly forbidden to run a traditional election campaign when you want to become president of the IOC. But in these contexts it is far from a given that the very best qualifications are enough. Can the world’s strongest man become a woman? Because the opposing forces are strong. Partly necessarily in the form of possible counter-candidates. Like the international cycling president, French David Lappartient or the IOC’s Spanish vice-president Juan Antonio Samaranch. In its 130-year history, the IOC has still not had a president from Asia, Africa or Latin America. Or a woman. Therefore, both Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister Kirsty Coventry and Jordan’s Prince Feisal al Hussein are mentioned as possible candidates. But not as favorites. With others than Thomas Bach and his close relatives. FEMALE FAVORITE: Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister Kirsty Coventry is probably a favorite of Thomas Bach and his close relatives. Photo: Laurent Gillieron / AP A lord in the soup Lord Coe has openly irritated parts of the power apparatus in the IOC. Including the sitting president himself. Partly through a brutal rejection of Russian participation in sports. By introducing cash prizes, for the first time in Olympic history. And most recently by criticizing the IOC for their lack of a position in the controversies surrounding the female boxers in Paris. Therefore, it was obviously no coincidence that on 9 September, the Monday before the deadline expired, a letter was sent from the IOC’s ethics committee to the 111 voting IOC members, including the two Norwegians, Kristin Kloster Aasen and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen. It is ironically signed by someone who previously had the main responsibility for world peace, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, now committee chairman. The letter is a kind of Lex Coe, by containing clarifications of the rules for being elected IOC president. All coincidentally aimed at restrictions that could affect Britons’ eligibility. It is emphasized that the age limit of 70 years also applies during the presidential term. Coe will be 70 in 2026. If you are no longer president of a special association, you also lose IOC membership. And with the possible office. Coe will step down as international athletics president in 2027. Several of these requirements also concern other current candidates. Only Coe is hit by everyone. No IOC rule without exceptions But if there is one thing the IOC has long shown, it is that they can adapt the map to the terrain, to keep us within the jargon of a non-Olympic sport. There is no rule from which exceptions cannot be made, if the will is there. There is no problem for which a solution cannot be found, if you believe it is to the organisation’s advantage. On Monday, we will know who the actual candidates are. Everything suggests that Sebastian Coe is one of the names on the list. And with it so far the favourite, despite the obvious and increasingly desperate counter-forces. POWERFUL PRESIDENT: Sebastian Coe is the day-to-day president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (WA). Photo: BEN STANSALL / AFP Much will probably be decided at a meeting in Lausanne in January. The candidates then have the opportunity to present themselves to the voters, i.e. the 111 members. Behind closed doors. Until then, there are still many elements that make one fear for the dignity of the upcoming election campaign-which-isn’t-an-election campaign. Gigantic egos. Nomination battles that are never quite what you think they will be. Stubbornness, personal conflict and intransigence. Statutes one follows or does not follow at will. And probably many more intrigues in store before the election year 2025. The consolation for us Norwegians must be that luckily this kind of thing only happens abroad. Published 15.09.2024, at 22.02
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