Diplomatic Experience Needed For New IOC President
By Ed Hula
The names of those IOC members hoping to succeed Thomas Bach as president will be revealed within days. Candidates nominate themselves in a letter to Bach due by September 15. The list of candidates will be released the next day. Bach steps down in June 2025, three months after the election in March.
Bach put his mark on the IOC and Olympics during 12 years in office. His Olympic Agenda program of reform and change appears to have put the IOC on a pathway to sustainability. The Olympic brand is financially strong and valued at $11 billion. Where cities once feared to bid, more than a dozen cities are now in talks with the IOC about hosting future Games. Gender equality is the rule now for the Olympics. New sports have been added to the program, old ones updated. Recognizing the digital world of sport, an Olympic E game event is planned for 2026. Olympic cities have been selected through 2034.
Whoever succeeds Bach will benefit from his tidy housekeeping. That said, a messy challenge that will require world-class diplomacy also awaits the new president.
I’m talking about the rift between the IOC and Russia that cracked open following the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and widened into a chasm when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Compounded by a massive doping scandal revealed in 2016 that led to sanctions against Russia, the Ukraine offensive led to Russian banishment from the Paris Olympics and likely to be treated the same way with Milan/Cortina in 2026. Depending on the outcome of the war Los Angeles 2028 could be a no for Russia, too.
A question facing the next IOC president is what happens if the hostilities linger? Despite Russia’s doping issues, the country has been an important cog in the Olympic wheel, in both sport and politics. The Olympics are diminished without Russia. At the same time, for the IOC accepting a rogue member of the community of nations is untenable.
Russia so far has not made headway in its threat to mount “Friendship Games” as a counter to the ban on competing in Olympic events. The event is aimed at attracting the BRIC nations and otherwise non-aligned nations. Initially planned in September, there’s no word from Moscow as to whether the project is still in the works. The IOC would be happy if it’s not.
A more pleasing forecast would picture a truce between Ukraine and Russia. While there’s no guess when the war might end, common sense would say one day in the next few years it might.
When that happens, the next IOC president will have to guide the careful restoration of Russia to the Olympic Family. The matter of reconstruction and reparations for sport infrastructure in Ukraine will be on the table. Then there will be the negotiations needed to repatriate the Russian Olympic Committee should the ROC choose to rejoin. If the answer is yes it will be up to the IOC president to take the lead to ensure Russian compliance with the World Anti-Doping code. The IOC president would be one of the key players restoring those relations.
The current 107 IOC members includes a handful with diplomatic experience. Let’s see who is ready and willing to take on the challenge of Russia.