This week the eclectic membership of the International Olympic Committee has travelled from all corners of the globe to Ancient Olympia, the spiritual home of the Games, to vote in secret for their next president. The 109 members include a Mongolian banker, a former Cape Verdean school teacher, a Fijian doctor, a Bhutanese prince and the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, as well as HRH Princess Anne, and they must decide who succeeds Thomas Bach as the most powerful sporting figure in the world.
The IOC president holds enormous sway not just in sport but in global politics – the first person to call Bach and congratulate him on winning the 2013 election was Vladimir Putin. The next president, who will win an eight-year term with a possible four-year renewal, will lead the IOC into a challenging world, facing down the climate crisis, deeply divisive issues of gender, the advancement of AI and a rapidly changing entertainment-scape, and all with Los Angeles ‘28 on the horizon which President Trump will seek to hijack for his own ends.
