Sebastian Coe: IOC presidential candidate would welcome Saudi Arabia’s Olympic bid if elected | Olympic Information

Sebastian Coe would welcome Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Video games if he’s elected the following president of the Worldwide Olympic Committee.

Coe, a two-time Olympic champion and present president of World Athletics, is one in all seven candidates looking for to succeed Thomas Bach as IOC president.

The candidates will current their program to all IOC members on the finish of January earlier than the vote to elect a brand new IOC President takes place throughout an IOC session in Greece from March 18 to 21, 2025.

As president of World Athletics, Coe has confronted a number of delicate points akin to doping, the Russian ban and the safety of feminine athletes and the ladies’s class, an expertise which he says permits him to occupy with out arguably probably the most highly effective place in world sport.

Why is Coe working?

If elected, Coe would contemplate being IOC president a ardour, not a job. He described it as a “dance he could not sit all the way down to” and beforehand advised Sky Sports activities it was a task he felt he was born to do.

Coe was among the best middle-distance runners in monitor and subject all through the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties, successful two Olympic gold medals on the Moscow and Los Angeles Video games. In 1979, he broke three world data – 800m, 1500m and mile – in 41 days – with the 800m document he set in 1981 standing for 16 years.

As a sports activities administrator, he persuaded IOC members 19 years in the past to award London the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Video games. Within the days and weeks main as much as the vote for these video games, London appeared to be behind Paris and Madrid, however Coe’s political know-how satisfied the IOC.

After organizing the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Video games, Coe ran for president of the IAAF, the world governing physique for athletics, in 2015. In successful the election, he took again a considerably little in issue below the management of its earlier president, Lamine Diack.

Coe modified the identify of the governing physique from the IAAF to World Athletics and, controversially on the time, banned Russia from worldwide athletics for state-sponsored doping.

What does Coe wish to do?

Coe believes that “an excessive amount of energy is within the arms of too few individuals” inside the IOC.

If he have been to turn into president, he’s not searching for a revolution as a result of he acknowledges that there are “actually good individuals” inside the IOC, however he needs important reform.

He says the IOC is unbalanced and desires a reset round sport. Sport and athletes have to be on the coronary heart and middle of all decision-making, alongside all IOC members. He needs to chair a collaborative presidency.

Any issues Coe faces?

Coe precipitated some consternation on the 2024 Paris Olympics by saying that monitor and subject athletes would obtain prize cash.

The gold medalists acquired US$50,000, the primary time that prize cash had been formally awarded on the Olympics, with Coe believing that athletes must be the beneficiaries of the monetary rewards provided on the Olympics.

As president of World Athletics, he oversaw a “feminine class” coverage that banned transgender girls from competing in that class. The rule states that “no transgender athlete who has reached male puberty might be permitted to compete in girls’s world rating competitions.”

If Coe turns into the brand new IOC president, points associated to the safety of the “girls’s class” and prize cash might be resolved.

He needs to collaboratively debate and introduce new insurance policies for the IOC and believes that if the group had had a transparent coverage concerning transgender athletes and people with DSD (variations of sexual improvement) at Paris 2024, controversy and misinformation round two feminine boxers would have been averted.

Coe says he’s very involved about local weather change, however believes sport has a novel function to play in sustainability and altering attitudes, with the Olympics being the flagship “mega-sporting occasion” alongside the World Cup. FIFA.

Many see main sporting occasions as having a destructive impact on local weather change, whereas Coe believes the platform can drive change, notably amongst a youthful era involved about local weather change.

What’s Coe’s place on Russia?

Russia is at present banned by the IOC, with athletes from Russia and Belarus solely allowed to compete on the 2024 Paris Olympics as impartial athletes.

Solely 32 impartial athletes from Russia and Belarus competed in Paris, with none allowed to point out any affiliation with Russia or Belarus, logos, flags or play an anthem.

The IOC had banned Russia and Belarus because of the conflict in Ukraine and the annexation of 4 areas of Ukraine.

World Athletics, of which Seb Coe is president, went even additional at Paris 2024, with no monitor and subject athletes from these international locations allowed to compete, whilst impartial athletes.

May Saudi Arabia host the Olympics?

The brief reply is sure.

Many individuals and organizations have expressed concern over the awarding of the 2034 FIFA World Cup to Saudi Arabia because of considerations over human rights inside the Kingdom.

If elected IOC president, Coe’s place concerning Saudi Arabia’s curiosity in internet hosting the Olympics and Paralympics is that he would pay attention and converse.

Coe mentioned he believes it is higher to shine the highlight relatively than keep away from troublesome conversations, and he expects to have strong conversations about points akin to human rights.

He additionally believes the IOC ought to contemplate transferring the Summer time Olympics from the northern hemisphere’s conventional summer season months to winter if warmth and athlete well-being turn into a difficulty.

Who’s Coe up towards?

Six different candidates are vying to turn into the following IOC president.

The one feminine candidate is Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe. Coventry was a embellished Olympic swimmer, successful gold medals on the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. After retirement, she was closely concerned in sports activities administration, together with serving as Zimbabwe’s Minister of Sports activities.

One other recognizable identify is the Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch. He’s the son of the previous IOC president who bore his identify. Samaranch Snr was President of the IOC for 21 years, between 1980 and 2001.

Different candidates embrace one other British hopeful, Johan Eliasch, present president of the Worldwide Ski and Snowboard Federation, HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, Frenchman David Lappartient, president of the UCI – the world governing physique of biking – and Morinari Watanabe of Japan.

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