The candidates for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), whose election will take place next March, are gradually revealing their program. One of the favorites, the Briton Sebastian Coe, outlined some ideas in an interview given to AFP this Monday. The former boss of the 2012 London Olympics wishes in particular to review the organization of the IOC, rethink the question of whether or not Russia will be reintegrated into the Games or even address the gender issue in women’s sport.
The risk of “losing” women’s sport
While South African athlete Caster Semenya continues her fight with international authorities, the last Paris Olympics were marked by controversies surrounding boxers Imane Khelif (-66 kg) and Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting (-57 kg ), who each won gold in their category even though they had been excluded from the 2022 and 2023 Worlds after failing eligibility tests.
“If we do not protect women’s sport and we do not have a clear, unambiguous political line to achieve this, we run the risk of losing it,” observes the current president of the International Athletics Federation. Personally and as the president of an Olympic sport, I am simply not ready for this to happen. »
Double Olympic champion in the 1,500m in Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984, the Briton says he was “uncomfortable” at the time of the controversy over gender in women’s boxing in Paris. “I don’t think you can take a sport like boxing lightly. We need clear policies as in all sports, argued the 68-year-old Briton. The international federations are waiting for this framework to be imposed by the Olympic movement. »
Sebastian Coe will be opposed in this election to six other candidates, including the Frenchman David Lappartient, current president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), and the Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch fils.
Senegal
