IOC presidential election LIVE: Ex-swimmer Kirsty Coventry beats Seb Coe as historic results revealed
Lord Coe was beaten to the presidency by Zimbabwean former swimmer Kirsty Coventry in a battle for the most powerful post in sport
Seb Coe lost his bid to become the most powerful figure in sport today as Zimbabwean former swimmer Kirsty Coventry swept to victory and succeeded Thomas Bach as president of the International Olympic Committee.
The IOC president holds dominion over the Olympic movement and acts as dealmaker and diplomat handling world leaders desperate for the dose of soft power that comes with hosting an Olympic Games.
Lord Coe was one of seven candidates on the ballot paper and he was among the frontrunners alongside Juan Antonio Samaranch – the son of the influential IOC president of the same name between 1980 and 2001 – and Coventry, who was bidding to become both the first woman and first African to lead the IOC.
The 109 members – a mix of royalty, billionaires, sports executives and Olympians from around the globe – gathered in the luxury Costa Navarino resort in Greece to cast secret votes. Coventry won an overall majority in the very first round, in a shock result that made history.
Follow the news and latest updates from the IOC presidential election below.
Meet the candidates
OUTSIDE BET: Johan Eliasch (Britain), 63, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, the Winter Olympics’ biggest sport.
Johan Eliasch is a Swedish-British businessman and environmentalist who heads up the Winter Olympics’ biggest sport, the Ski and Snowboard Federation. He has pitched hard on a platform of turning the Games green, suggesting the IOC should commit to conserving a rainforest the same size as each Olympic city.
Some members knew little about Eliasch before his candidacy and one was surprised he “bulldozed in” to the presidential election so soon after becoming a member last year. That is not seen as the “done thing” at the IOC, a conservative organisation where you wait your turn and earn your stripes, joining working groups and commissions to build your standing.
Meet the candidates
CONTENDER: David Lappartient (France), 51, president of World Cycling (UCI).
David Lappartient is the president of world cycling (the UCI), and the Frenchman is known as a hard-working “eager beaver” who members consider a safe pair of hands. He can expect some backing from central Europe and Francophone Africa, but his CV lacks the heft of Coe and their Spanish rival candidate with a famous name, Juan Antonio Samaranch.
Meet the candidates
CONTENDER: Prince Feisal Al Hussein (Jordan), 61, brother of the King of Jordan, who serves on the IOC’s executive board.
Prince Feisal Bin al-Hussein, the only royalty on the ballot as the brother of King Abdullah of Jordan. Prince Feisal is the head of the Jordanian Olympic Committee and has become a major player at the IOC over the past decade after serving on a number of commissions and the executive board.
His universal popularity cannot be overstated. Everyone involved with the IOC speaks glowingly about Prince Feisal, who has charisma and natural leadership to go with a strong track record in sport. He is well known for his work as founder of Generations For Peace, an NGO which promotes tolerance in areas of conflict through sport and other community programmes, and it means his “sport for peace” pitch carries genuine meaning at a time of geopolitical tension in the world.
Online smear campaign shows election's dark side
In recent days, an online smear campaign has targeted two of the candidates in the running for election, spreading damaging and lurid claims of misdemeanour without evidence. It is unclear who is behind the campaign, which has revealed a darker side to this high-stakes election.
Separately, there have also been accusations of unfair play among the candidates, and even the incumbent president Thomas Bach has become embroiled, amid much talk that he has been lobbying for one of the candidates – Kirsty Coventry – in what would amount in many members eyes to foul play.
Bach ignored the question, when asked at a press conference earlier this week.
Meet the candidates
FRONTRUNNER: Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe), 41, decorated Olympic swimmer and minister for sport in Zimbabwe who serves on the IOC’s executive board .
Public endorsements are strictly forbidden but it is an open secret that Bach’s preferred successor would be the sole female candidate on the ballot, the former Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry, Africa’s most decorated Olympian with eight medals.
Coe and Coventry are the only Olympians among the seven candidates, but Coventry is much younger at 41, and her relative youth combined with her recent role on the IOC Athletes’ Commission should give her the backing of the small but growing group of recently retired athletes in the membership, like American sprinter Allyson Felix. All of the candidates cheered about “athlete empowerment” during their campaigns, but when it came from Coventry, the message carried real weight.
The IOC has sought to redress the gender balance among its membership in recent years and the influx of women could play into Coventry’s hands as she seeks to become the first female president. Though if she needed evidence of just how hard that might prove to be then she need only look at the IOC’s own web page explaining this election, which already assumes the president will be a man based on the subheadline: “When will the new IOC President start his term?”
Meet the candidates
FRONTRUNNER: Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr (Spain), 65, an IOC vice-president whose father was the president from 1980 to 2001.
Samaranch is a serious contender in this election and is widely respected among the membership. He has served on a raft of Olympic commissions and is a current IOC vice-president, and he is expected to have strong backing across Europe and the Americas. He is a smooth operator and multi-linguist, skilfully illustrated last month when the Spaniard flipped between English and French in his candidacy speech.
What stands as both a blessing and a curse is the legacy of his father, Juan Antonio Samaranch Snr, a godfather figure at the IOC who served as president between 1980 and 2001. His reign oversaw giant growth for the Olympic movement, but a damaging corruption scandal emerged on his watch and he embroiled himself in controversy with lavish spending.
While the Samaranch name still carries an undoubted gravitas in the Olympic world, one member questioned the optics of installing the seventh president’s son as the 10th president of the IOC. “It’s not a family company,” they joked.
Meet the candidates
FRONTRUNNER: Lord Coe (Britain), 68, president of World Athletics, the Olympics’ biggest sport.
Coe is a highly respected and influential player with a proven track record of winning major campaigns after masterminding London’s victory over Paris to host the 2012 Games. But in the corridors of the IOC’s headquarters he is a divisive figure. Coe has been openly critical on a range of issues, such as Russian sanctions, and his outspoken approach has often ruffled feathers, so much so that he is actively loathed by some senior IOC figures. Incumbent president Thomas Bach would rather Coe not win the race.
A disputed incident was Coe’s announcement last year that gold medalists in track and field events at the Paris 2024 Olympics would receive a $50,000 prize. The move caught the IOC off guard and left some figures furious that Coe was “playing solo”, even if he was entitled to do so. It is said that Coe has struck a notably open and receptive tone in discussions with members over recent weeks, as he bids to make up any lost ground. Coe has plenty of backers but he may need to win over some detractors if he is to claim the presidency.
How does the voting work?
The 109 members will electronically cast a vote for their preferred candidate. All members must be physically present and no proxy voting is allowed.
The winning candidate must secure more than 50 per cent of the votes for an overall majority. If a majority isn’t achieved in the first round of voting, then the candidate with the least number votes is eliminated, and six candidates go through to the sixth round where votes are recast. The process goes on until one candidate wins more than 50 per cent of the total votes in a given round.
The only members who cannot vote are compatriots of candidates in the process. So, for example, the other three French members of the IOC cannot until David Lappartient is eliminated for the process. However, the candidates themselves can, and do, vote for themselves. Honorary members cannot vote.
The winning candidate will serve an eight-year term, with a possible renewal of four years.
Who gets to vote?
The 109 voters in the exclusive invited club of IOC members include royal family members, former lawmakers and diplomats, billionaires and business leaders, sports officials and Olympic athletes. There is even an Oscar-winning actress, Michelle Yeoh.
They will vote without hearing further presentations from the candidates in an election that should swing on a discreet network of friendships and alliances largely forged out of sight.
When is the vote?
The election to decide the next president of the IOC takes place this afternoon at the luxury Costa Navarino hotel resort in Greece.
Voting is set to begin at around 2pm GMT, with an outcome likely to be delivered at some time before 3pm, depending on how many rounds of voting are required.
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