Lord Coe awaits IOC election result in Greece
Lord Coe will today find out whether he has been elected to one of the biggest jobs in sport, president of the International Olympic Committee.
The two-time Olympic champion and current president of World Athletics spent the final few days of campaigning telling potential voters – IOC members – how he’d take the Olympic movement forwards, focusing on female participation and integrity.
He has been backed by London 2012 hero Mo Farah, the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt, Paralympic trailblazer Baroness Grey-Thompson and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, among others.
“Becoming president of the International Olympic Committee would be a privilege and the honour of my life,” he wrote this week.
“I don’t see it as a job. It’s a passion. And I’m ready. If elected president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday, I will: protect and promote the integrity of women’s sport, find and stamp out the drugs cheats, empower the 100-plus IOC membership and place athletes at the heart of every decision we make.”
Coe competition
Coe will need to overcome six other candidates to get his hands on the top job. His chief rivals are Juan Antonio Samaranch, whose father previously held the role, and Kirsty Coventry, bidding to become the first female to hold the role. Other candidates include HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan.
Outgoing president Thomas Bach said he’d be available for advice, adding “they can call me in the middle of the night but I don’t know if I’d respond, I love my eight hours of sleep”.
Coe wrote in The Sun: “My vision is simple. To use the inspirational power of the Olympic Movement to deliver the Greatest Show on Earth every two years.
“I have been in training for this for most of my life. I want to build, I want to reform and I want to deliver.”