Sebastian Coe vows to shake up IOC if he wins presidency race
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Sebastian Coe has vowed to shake up the International Olympic Committee if he wins the race to be its new president and believes “too much power is in the hands of too few people”. Coe, a double Olympic champion and the current president of World Athletics, sees himself unashamedly as the reform candidate in the contest to replace Thomas Bach.
The manifestos of the seven candidates were published by the IOC on Thursday morning and, at a media briefing to launch his blueprint, Coe was clear about his desire to truly democratise the IOC. “There’s no shortage of talent (among the membership). But the question I ask myself as a member is – what input do I and other members have? And the reality of it is, there isn’t enough. There’s too much power in the hands of too few people,” he said.
“The creation of commissions that are really meaningful and feed into an executive board, an executive board that is a really important filter for the members and a president’s office that is open and accessible and is prepared to work collaboratively – those are absolutely key prerequisites. And at the moment, we don’t have that. The decision-making processes aren’t working. They’re out of balance, and the fences need to be taken down.
“It’s just freeing up people, and not assuming that if you come with a different analysis, that in some way this is heretical and you’re trying to burn the whole movement.”. When it was pointed out to Coe that his words might not land well with senior IOC figures, he replied: “Well, look, I’m sorry – that’s the way I see it.”.
