The race to become world sport’s most powerful figure has entered the finishing straight with International Olympic Committee (IOC) members in Greece to elect a new president for the first time since 2013.
The winner will replace Thomas Bach and become just the 10th person to hold the highest office in sport – taking the role for at least the next eight years.
The IOC has chosen for its 144th Session a luxury hotel in the plush seaside resort of Costa Navarino, about 60 miles south of Olympia, birthplace of the ancient Games, where an opening ceremony for the gathering took place earlier this week.
But with all the candidates still trying to secure support from their fellow members, the atmosphere is tense before what some are calling the most important IOC election for decades.
The IOC – a mix of royalty, former athletes and leading figures from the worlds of law, politics and business – will conduct an electronic secret ballot with each member casting one vote per round.
In an intriguing process that has drawn comparisons with the way cardinals choose a new pope, IOC members must hand in their phones before entering the auditorium, and compatriots of a candidate cannot vote until that individual is eliminated from the process.
In total, 106 of the 109 members are present, and an absolute majority more than 50% of the votes is needed for a candidate to win.
If none achieve that in the first round, the candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated, and additional rounds will then be conducted until someone has an absolute majority.
In what is thought to be one of the closest races in the IOC’s 131 year history, most insiders are predicting several rounds of voting.
President of World Athletics, Lord Sebastian Coe is the highest-profile contender.
A two-time Olympic 1500m champion, the 68-year-old oversaw the London 2012 Games before taking charge of World Athletics, and is bidding to become the first British IOC president.
English (US) ·