IOC will elect a new president this week. This is what you need to know

Behind closed doors in a resort in Greece, with the stopping of cameras, members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will choose a new president on Thursday in the 144th session of the organization.

The winner among the seven candidates will lead the world’s largest sports organization starting in June when President Thomas Bach, who has held the first job since 2013.

It seems that one of the largest elements in the new tasks list for the new president was examined earlier this week, When the International Olympic Committee announced a new American media rights agreement with NBC.

The deal, which is valued at $ 3 billion, will continue until at least 2036, when it hosts the Salt Leck City Olympics. The United States Rights deal is a major source of revenue for IOC.

But they will have many other issues that must be addressed, from moving in international diplomacy and conflict, warming climate, mathematical integrity issues and athletes, to ensure that the Olympic Games are within reach of a younger generation that is more likely to turn into TIK TOK before running TV.

Here is a preview of what can be expected, and who runs, and why the Canadians should take care of:

Candidates

Seven people are competing for the presidency, as many see Sebastian Ko, Juan Antonio Samranech Junior and Kirsti Coventry as three chapters.

COE, the world athletic president, the Olympic Medal four times and the London 2012 organizer, has a platform focusing on youth involvement, increased transparency, strengthening doping system and giving priority to physical, financial and mental athletes.

“The biggest challenge faced by the International Olympic Committee is not different, and it is not unique from any national Olympic committee, any sports organization, or any club, private or public: is how it continues to excite and communicate with young people?” COE told correspondents during a short session questions and answers with the media in January.

“How do you use, improve, fully, use advanced technology?”

COE raised the eyebrows when, before the Summer Olympic Games in Paris last year, announced that the gold games winners will receive an American reward worth $ 50,000. Some criticized this step as against the spirit of the Olympic Games.

Ko said that he would give priority to the athletes “financial well -being” and will make sure of “their contributions fairly reward.” He also promised to create programs that will see athletes getting part of the “commercial rewards that they help generate.”

Coventry in Zimbabwe is only the second woman to be nominated to head the International Olympic Committee. If elected, you will also be the first president of Africa. Koubah, Coventry competed in five Olympic matches, and won seven medals.

Some believe that it is Bach’s preferred candidate, although Kovintry is reducing that when one of the reporters asked about it in January.

“We all have a very good relationship with him,” she said. “I think it is very fair to all of us at this time.”

She also confirmed transparency and modernization on her platform, and was open about some of the unique challenges faced by African athletes. The continent has never hosted the Olympic Games, and Coventry is the most decorated Olympic from Africa.

“We need to find more ways to directly influence and obtain revenues for athletes before they became Olympic,” Kovintry told reporters in January.

“On my journey, it was easy to get care as soon as I won a medal. She was reaching that difficult medal.”

If the name of Samarans is familiar, then this is because his permissible father led the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001. But many have changed since his father’s presidency.

Samarans said of his late father: “Keep in mind that he joined the Olympic Movement for more than 60 years,” Samarans said of his late father.

IOC’s younger Samranch was a member of IOC for more than two decades, including seven years as a vice president. This prompted a correspondent to his question in January about the type of changes that he is expected to make as a president that he could not do within many years in the Executive Council of the International Olympic Committee.

He described Bach’s era as “threats” and “complications”. The term Bach of Russia’s War included the Ukraine scandal and satellite satellite channel, as well as a global pandemic. Samarang said the change would need to come faster in the future.

The rest of this field includes the President of the International Ski and Skilled Federation of ice, Johan Eliyash, President of the International Bicycle Union, David Lapartment, Prince Jordan Weissal Al -Hussein and Mourinary Watanabi, which leads the International Gymnastics Federation.

The WatanABE platform offers what the most extreme proposal may be: organizing games in five cities on five continents at the same time to create a 24 -hour global event. According to Watanabe, this would reduce the cost of hosting and can help collect five continents together.

Who will vote?

The exclusive membership is assigned to IOC, which includes former and current athletes, heads of Olympic committees and sports federations from all over the world, and even some kings – King Frederick X from Denmark and Amir Albert II of Monaco, to name a few to choose the next president.

Many of this process happened in the dark. Each of the candidates had 15 minutes to present to the members In an event in Switzerland In January, these presentations were closed to the audience and were not allowed to photograph them. The candidates briefly answered questions from the media after the presentations.

Likewise, voting will occur through secret voting, starting at 4 pm local time (10 am East time) in Greece on Thursday.

Only one Canadian member of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), Chairman of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). She told CBC Sports that the new president will play a major role in updating the Olympic Games, including digital transformation and youth participation.

“This is a moment to find new ways to include in the sport of unique strength that you should collect for us, which seems more important than ever now,” Smith said in a written statement.

As for what COC is looking for in the next president, Smith said that the International Migration Committee needs “a leader who understands and embodies the positive values ​​of sport, and returns to integrity, good governance, sustainability, financial and environmental, with the progress of a safe and comprehensive sports environment around the world.”

Issues

The warming climate may be the biggest challenge that the next president will face, which is 400 athletes from all over the world He urged the candidates to set priorities in a letter issued on Friday.

After destroyed forest fires, Los Angeles is in the spotlight as a host of the 2028 summer Olympics. It will also mean that there will also be dealing with the US -undisputed US president often Donald Trump. Trump’s meeting should be on the list of tasks for the Chairman of the International Olympic Committee, Samarang told the Associated Press last week.

Meanwhile, Lappartient told Reuters last week He will also meet with Trump, but he will assure the American President that the autonomy of the International Olympic Committee must be respected.

During the availability of a single media that included all the seven candidates, many were asked to welcome Russia’s return to the Olympic Games and what are the circumstances that must be met until this happens.

Elish said that the neutral athletes program that allowed Russian athletes and Al -Balain to compete, after an examination of the athletes who supported the war against Ukraine or the army, worked well.

Al -Hussein said he wants to see the whole world in the Olympic Games.

“At the present time, what I understand is the exclusion of Russian athletes depends on a violation of the Olympic Charter,” he said. “As head of the International Olympic Committee, my league and responsibility is to support the Olympic Charter, and as long as no one was in violation, there is no reason for the sanctions. I would like to find a mechanism where we can re -present it. The world is stronger when we are all together.”

Some, such as COE, emphasized the need to “protect the female group” on its platform. As head of world athletics, his organization has banned sexually transformed athletes in 2023 and Then I went to the front this yearSuggest changes that will extend the same rules for mathematics who have higher levels of testosterone.

Coventry took a similar position. The only candidate told reporters that the International Olympic Committee needs clear policies and all athletes should feel safe at the play field.

Treat the problem Lappartient with the diversity lens on its platform.

“It is a complex issue that must be dealt with rationally to achieve the right balance between the need to respect human rights and adhere to fair competition. We cannot ignore what mathematics say, but our decisions must also be based on strong scientific evidence.”

Form the future of sport

The elections take place thousands of kilometers away, and you can feel completely far to people who control the Olympic Games every two years.

But the president of the International Olympic Committee will form how the Olympic Games appear and feel during the next decade, and the decisions they make can determine the future of sport in Canada and abroad.

For this reason, Philip Marquis, a Kurdish free skate that competes in the 2014 and 2018 Olympics, believes that these elections are important. He said that the next president will determine the tone, and he will decide everything who can compete in the larger stage to how the Olympic Games will be moved in a variable climate and warming.

“For everyone), whether they are a high -performance or just entertainment athlete, I think sport plays a very vital and important place in people’s minds, and the heart of the people.”