Coe criticises IOC election process

Sebastian Coe on Friday criticised the election process for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee, just days away from a vote to decide if he becomes the most powerful figure in sport.
Coe is one of the frontrunners among the seven candidates in the election to succeed Thomas Bach as leader of the Olympic movement. The vote takes place next Thursday in Costa Navarino, Greece. The Briton, the president of World Athletics, has been frustrated by the brevity of the 20-minute presentation that each candidate was allowed to give to the 109-strong club of IOC members that will elect the new leader.
Coe, 68, also bemoaned the lack of access to the IOC members. “Is it a process that needs looking at? Yes it does,” he said in a call with international agencies. “I think there are better and more inclusive ways of doing that.”
Asked what needed improving, he said: “More access to the members, more transparency.” He added: “It has been difficult to engage and I don’t think those are the guiding principles of an election. An election is very important, in one big way, in that it gives people the opportunity to have a conversation. In future, this needs to be a more open and expansive process.”
Coe’s main rivals are Juan Antonio Samaranch Junior, the son of the man who led the IOC for 21 years until 2001, and Kirsty Coventry, the Zimbabwean seven-time Olympic swimming medallist and sports minister in her country. International cycling chief David Lappartient, Prince Feisal al-Hussein of Jordan, International Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe and Olympic newcomer and multimillionaire Johan Eliasch, who heads the International Ski Federation, complete the candidates’ lineup.
Coe, a former Olympic champion who also led the 2012 London Olympics, also said World Athletics’ decision to start offering prize money to Olympic champions should not be seen as a template for all other sports. World Athletics announced its prize money for gold medallists decision unilaterally ahead of last year’s Paris Games without consultation with the IOC, of which Coe is a member, or other international sports federations.
The decision angered the IOC and some federations at the time which opposed such a move, saying not all athletes were benefiting from it. World Athletics has said it will offer prize money to all medallists in the sport at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. “Prize money was implemented by the sport in response to a very specific issue in track and field,” Coe said, adding track and field athletes were being recruited by other sports. “We gave them (an) incentive to remain in the sport.”
The Briton, however, said should he win the election next week he would not enforce such a model for other sports. “Nobody in the Olympic landscape should conclude that because I had a mandate in World Athletics... that this is a one-size-fits-all. That I suddenly walk straight into the (IOC) office in Lausanne next week and tell everybody they are taking prize money,” he said. “Absolutely not. I would encourage the discussion about what more can we do to create true and genuine commercial partners out of our athletes. Nobody should run away with the idea of a one-size-fits-all. It is a collaborative discussion,” Coe added.