Getty Images
Thomas Bach’s 12-year tenure as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) comes to an end in June, with seven candidates in the running to replace the German in perhaps the highest office in all of sport.
A vote to decide Bach’s successor will take place during the 144th IOC Session in Greece from 18th to 21st March, with the winner set to be announced on Thursday. Whoever replaces him will become just the tenth president in the IOC’s 131-year history.
The role of the IOC president comes with a broad set of demands, from navigating a fast-evolving commercial landscape and dealing with heads of state, to managing relationships with myriad stakeholders, plotting the future of Olympic Games hosting, and resolving matters of sporting governance, such as anti-doping and gender eligibility.
All the while, the Olympic movement’s top official must also consider and act upon the challenges posed by a raft of wider societal and humanitarian issues, including geopolitical tensions, global conflict, climate change, and the emergence of new technologies.
As Bach found out, there will only be so much the next president can control. The 71-year-old has had to contend with some unprecedented challenges during his tenure, chief among them being a global pandemic that led to the postponement of Tokyo 2020 and Russia’s state-sanctioned doping scandal. Both were unforeseen and, while the president-elect may not have to deal with issues on that scale, highlight the unpredictable nature of the job.
Even so, Bach will point to several major achievements from his reign, including growth of the IOC’s TOP programme, bidding process reforms and the implementation of the Olympic Agenda 2020+5 strategic roadmap, which he would argue came to life during a successful Paris 2024. In the week leading up to the election, there was also time for the outgoing president to sign off a US$3 billion media rights extension with US broadcaster NBC, whose deal makes it the single biggest benefactor for the worldwide Olympic movement.
As the race to succeed Bach heads for the finish line, SportsPro looks at where the seven candidates stand on the biggest issues.
Who’s in the running?
Athlete compensation
Should athletes receive prize money for competing at the Olympic Games? All candidates agree that competitors drive significant value for the Olympic movement, but the issue of athlete compensation remains a contentious one.
Sebastian Coe, a former Olympic champion on the track, has long been a vocal proponent of prize money at the Games. In his current role at World Athletics, the Briton oversaw performance-related payments during Paris 2024, with gold medal winners each receiving US$50,000. In doing so, the track and field body became the first international federation to award prize money at an Olympics.
‘Athletes drive the value of the Games,’ Coe writes in his manifesto. ‘I will develop programmes that could allow all athletes to share the commercial rewards they help generate, empowering them as partners, not just participants.’
Juan Antonio Samaranch, on the other hand, has said he strongly disagrees with the concept of Olympic Games prize money, noting that champions are already compensated by NOCs, sponsorships, and income from competing at other events. The Games “are different”, says the Spaniard, because the money at the top of the pyramid is reinvested at every level of sport, with the IOC currently redistributing 90 per cent of all its income to Olympic bodies worldwide.
“I think that taking any money from there to compensate the current champions is unnecessary,” Samaranch told journalists during a roundtable hosted by AIPS Media. “That money has to be used to flatten the curve and make the Olympic Games more accessible for more people. So I really believe that the model we have is adequate and fair.”
Other candidates share the same opinion. Morinari Watanabe, president of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), believes paying prize money will only widen the gap between developed and developing nations, and while Jordan’s Prince Feisal wants to rework the Games revenue distribution model so that it values athletes, he is against the idea of direct athlete compensation based on performance.
“I think it’s difficult,” he said, also during an AIPS session. “We believe in equality, we believe in fairness. How do you value a gold medal in a 100-metre race, whether it’s swimming or running, versus archery or badminton? There is, I think, inequality in terms of what people value as Olympic medals. So I think it is a challenge and I don’t agree with that.
“I think it goes against the principles of Olympic solidarity. And I think the current system, while maybe not perfect, is an effective mechanism.”
Go Deeper
Revenue generation models
After seeing four TOP partners depart in 2024 – an exodus which International Cycling Union (UCI) president David Lappartient says in his manifesto was ‘a stark reminder that we should take nothing for granted’ – the future of the IOC’s global sponsorship tier has been high on the agenda for the presidential candidates. Several have promised to either review, tweak or overhaul the programme – though none have gone as far as calling to give brands exposure within the field of play.
Even so, Coe has stressed the importance of creating revenue streams that “appeal to younger fans” and has promised to develop “new, more affordable partnership models” while “respecting the rights of our trusted partners”. Samaranch’s manifesto also teases the possibility of creating ‘new levels of partnership’.
Japan’s Watanabe isn’t convinced that the TOP programme in its current guise delivers enough value to sponsors, telling Reuters that the current system where brands pay millions of dollars to gain access to the five rings “cannot continue”.
Meanwhile, based on her experience as a medal-winning Olympic athlete, Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry has claimed that sponsors of the Games want more connection points with the Games more often than every two years.
“I think there has to be a way in which we can relook and revisit the TOPs,” she said during a media roundtable. “One of the first things I’d like to do is bring all the TOP sponsors together and have a bit of a think tank to really understand their expectations.”
Several candidates have acknowledged the changing broadcast landscape, but none have gone as far as to outline their vision for what the future of Olympic media distribution will look like.
Arguably the most concrete suggestions around new revenue streams have been tabled by Samaranch, whose manifesto consists of 40 action points, one of which is to work with broadcasters to give athletes access to footage of themselves competing to post on their own social media channels.
In addition, Samaranch has pledged to launch a US$1 billion investment fund which could bring private equity into the Olympic movement. Rather than clubs, leagues or major events, he told SportsPro that the IOC has the expertise to identify “less visible, high-potential assets” in sports-adjacent sectors like technology. Samaranch also hopes to monetise Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) by contracting it for other sports events and to create an Olympic donor programme that would help finance initiatives like the Olympic Museum and Olympic Refugee Foundation.
Human rights, politics and Russia
Anyone hoping that the IOC might take a firmer stand on human rights and other political issues under new leadership is likely to be left disappointed. Most candidates, including Johan Eliasch, Samaranch, Coventry, Prince Feisal and Coe, have stressed the importance of maintaining the political neutrality of the global Olympic body.
That said, the issue of Russia’s potential reintegration into the Olympic movement has been a key talking point in the buildup to the election amid talks over a peace deal with Ukraine.
Coe, who has historically taken a strict stance on the involvement of Russian athletes in World Athletics competitions both in the wake of the country’s doping offences and its invasion of its neighbour, has now said he would be open to ending Russia’s sporting isolation if he were elected president and the war came to an end.
That is generally in keeping with the other candidates, who have backed the IOC’s handling of the situation up to now, which has seen Russian and Belarusian athletes compete at the Olympics as neutrals.
While Prince Feisal has said there is “nothing I would like more than to have the whole world” at the Olympics, he reiterated that any nation violating the Olympic charter would face sanctions – a sentiment echoed by others in the running. Samaranch appears most open to Russia’s return, saying that he would like Russia back at the Games “the minute if and when … conditions change that causes the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee”.
“We all live under the rule of politics, but [the Olympics’] necessity, our condition for survival and relevance is that we cannot take sides,” he told the Washington Post. “If we are for universal, we cannot say that one [country] is right [and] one is wrong. We cannot lean on the Western principles or on the Eastern principles. We cannot let the pressures that we receive to get the Olympics closer to one way of thinking or one way of life. We have to resist that.
“The minute we stop resisting, the minute we lean into one way or another, we will lose universality, and you know what? Finito, Olympic Games.”
Keeping new US president Donald Trump onside will also be crucial for whoever wins the election ahead of Los Angeles hosting the Summer Olympics in 2028. Samaranch told the Associated Press that meeting with the American “has to be a priority” for the next IOC president, while Lappartient said in an interview with Reuters that Trump will need to understand that the autonomy of the Olympic body “must be respected”.
Future hosts
Front and centre of Watanabe’s manifesto is a headline-grabbing vision to stage the Summer Olympics in five cities on five different continents at the same time, which he believes would spread the excitement of the Games around the world, provide broadcasters with live competition 24 hours a day, and deliver ‘literal worldwide promotion’ for TOP sponsors.
While that would represent a radical overhaul, several candidates have acknowledged the need for the IOC to at least evolve its hosting model both in response to climate change and to accommodate more potential destinations.
As well as Eliasch’s proposal to rotate hosts of the Winter Olympics, Coe has even suggested that some indoor sports from the Summer Olympics could be moved to the winter Games instead.
Coe is also open to taking the Games to Saudi Arabia, while Samaranch believes the IOC should consider staging the Summer Olympics during the winter months, similar to how the 2022 Fifa World Cup was held in Qatar. The Spaniard thinks that would make staging the event possible for countries with extreme summer temperatures, increasing the possibility of the Games taking place in territories like Africa and the Middle East for the first time.
“We have to make sure that we make the Games available to everybody in the world, all regions in the world,” he told Reuters. “It is not acceptable that we say because of history or tradition that we are going to exclude regions of the world from the possibility of organising the Olympic Games.
“It is not them that will have to change their climate, it will be us that will have to change whatever is necessary to be truly universal.”
A similar view is held by Prince Feisal, who has suggested a review of the sporting calendar to retain the “universality” of the Olympics.
“The way it’s structured right now limits the number of countries that can do it,” he said, also speaking with Reuters. “I would sit with the international federations and others in the Olympic movement and say, is there flexibility in the calendar so that we can open the possibility for different countries to host.”
Brisbane was confirmed as the host of the 2032 Olympics in 2021 but presidential candidates have called for changes to open up the Games to more potential destinations
Governance
As much as it wants to be seen as the United Nations of sport, the IOC has felt more akin to a vast multinational company under Bach’s leadership.
While Eliasch states in his manifesto that the IOC ‘is not a business’, he believes it must be run in a ‘businesslike manner’, meaning clear KPIs and areas of responsibility. He adds that IOC members should have the opportunity to be ‘seen and heard’.
Indeed, the candidates have been eager to appeal to members by emphasising how integral they will be to the future of the IOC, promising to involve them more in key decision-making processes.
Lappartient intends to ‘enhance’ the participation of members, though he is proposing a ‘small reduction’ in the number of commissions and the number of members in each one. Coe has also pledged to ensure key decision-making sits with members, as has Samaranch, who plans to extend their retirement age to 75. Coventry, meanwhile, says IOC commissions will have greater influence and power if she is elected, and has also promised increased transparency to ensure good governance and accountability.
Prince Feisal is another to advocate for a more democratic IOC and hinted at decentralising some of the organisation’s functions so they are not solely based in Lausanne.
For voters eyeing a bigger overhaul, Watanabe has laid out his idea for a bicameral – or ‘two-chamber’ – system where ‘The House’ consists of both NOC and IF presidents and ‘The Senate’ is made up of IOC members. That would mean proposals of the IOC executive board being discussed in The House and then decided in The Senate.
Furthermore, Watanabe is calling for a change in the term of office of the IOC president, with the incumbent serving a maximum of three terms of four years each for a total of 12 years.
Sebastian Coe, Kirsty Coventry and Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr are considered the frontrunners to land the Olympic movement’s top job
Climate change
Environmental sustainability has been a hot topic in Olympic circles and a major area of focus for the IOC for some time. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the candidates are united in their belief that the organisation must lead by example and work to galvanise the sporting world behind common objectives when it comes to climate action.
“Sustainability is at the core of everything today,” Eliasch told SportsPro. “Our planet wasn’t designed for eight and a half billion people living the way we do, and we only have one planet. So we do need to take action, and we have a responsibility because we have such a big reach to make that message loud and clear.”
Eliasch, who has pitched himself as the planet-conscious candidate having spearheaded several environmental conservation organisations, advocates for hosting the Winter Olympics in a rotating number of host destinations, partly in recognition of the impact climate change is already having on snow sports.
“For the Winter Olympics, [climate change] could potentially become an existential threat with time,” he said. “I believe in this rotation scheme/concept where we would designate certain venues and simply rotate the Games between these venues. That would enable federations like mine to invest continuously through events that are delivered year in, year out, and reduce the cost and the complexity when the Games are put on.”
Both Samaranch and Coventry have pledged to focus on ensuring the IOC and the Olympic Games operate more sustainably. Lappartient, meanwhile, goes further, suggesting that funding for Olympic stakeholders could be dependent upon their work to hit environmental targets.
‘We will call upon Olympic movement stakeholders to align with the IOC sustainability strategy and encourage our athletes to continue to speak out for global action in the world of sport,’ reads his manifesto. ‘It makes sense to me that financial support provided by the IOC to International Federations and National Olympic Committees should be partly contingent on the latter pledging to take action on climate issues.’
Gender equality and eligibility
The IOC currently lets IFs set their own gender eligibility rules, which has seen some prevent athletes who have undergone male puberty from competing in elite female competition amid concerns inclusion could compromise fairness and safety.
With gender eligibility a hot and complex topic, the candidates are united in wanting to protect the female category. The likes of Coe, Coventry and Eliasch support a blanket ban on transgender women from competing in female Olympic sport. The trio, as well as Lappartient, Samaranch and Watanabe, have vowed to base their transgender athlete polices on medical and scientific evidence.
Rather than favouring an extended process, which Watanabe believes is necessary, Samaranch is pushing for a decision on transgender athletes before Milan-Cortina 2026 and has suggested the IOC’s current stance is inadequate.
“It was a good call [in 2021], but it has not been good enough,” he said. “Paris [2024] demonstrated that the social alarm on this issue is still there, and there is a common understanding … for the IOC as the leader of the world of sports to be the leader also on this issue.”
Prince Feisal, meanwhile, is happy to keep deferring to IFs on gender eligibility. His manifesto is more focused on protecting athletes from the same kind of abuse that Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was subjected to during Paris 2024 and driving gender equality in sport.
‘The current rise in interest in women’s sport was preceded by decades of work in the Olympic movement to create a space where female athletes could excel, and I fully intend to build on this and ensure the IOC acts as a beacon for a global move towards gender equality over the next decade,’ Prince Feisal writes in his manifesto.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif was at the heart of a gender eligibility row at Paris 2024, which has made the subject a big issue during the election campaign
Technology
Technology is having a profound impact on every aspect of sport and artificial intelligence (AI), in particular, is top of the agenda for every candidate. Indeed, the application of AI has the potential to transform Olympic sport – from officiating, athlete training, anti-doping and injury prevention, to broadcasting, operations and fan engagement.
‘Investing in these technologies now will reap great savings in time and money down the line,’ reads Eliasch’s manifesto. ‘We must also be mindful that AI has the potential to make doping even more difficult to detect – another reason why investing now is important for the Olympic and Paralympic brand down the line.’
Staying abreast of technological trends is crucial for an IOC president. For the seven candidates, though, ensuring a level playing field is of paramount importance when it comes to AI.
“The challenge with AI is not everybody can afford it, not everybody has the resources to develop it,” Prince Feisal told journalists during an AIPS roundtable. “It shouldn’t be just for the benefit of the rich countries at the expense of the poor.
“Can I actually mobilise it and deploy AI in a way that would help NOCs and International Federations do their jobs better? Some of the NOCs only have three or four employees, so if AI can help make their job easier and allow them to be more productive, I think this is the type of thing we would like to see.”
For Coventry, AI harbours the potential to extend the Olympic viewing experience to a broader audience in more immersive ways. As she writes in her manifesto: ‘By bringing the Olympic Games directly into the hands and hearts of people everywhere, the IOC can reinforce its commitment to solidarity, expand its global footprint, and create a stronger connection with younger, digitally savvy audiences.’
In a similar vein, Samaranch has suggested in his manifesto that every Olympian should be given access to footage of their Olympic performances which can then be linked to their social media channels, enabling the IOC to leverage them as ambassadors.
“In less than three months, we’ll have the technology ready,” he has said. “All past and present athletes will be able to link themselves to our archive and pull out their performances in the Olympic Games and put them on their social media.”
Get your daily briefing of all the essential news across the sports industry with the SportsPro Daily Newsletter. Subscribe here.