Still no word from the IOC about the results of the single round of voting. The official regulations of the vote stipulated that “the full results of all the rounds of voting will be published as soon as the name of the new IOC President is announced” but that appears to have been a fib. In her candidature document (available in English, French and Spanish here) Coventry listed five priorities: harnessing the power of sport; maximising collaboration and engagement; strengthening partnerships for mutual growth; championing sustainable development; and advancing credibility and trust. The document ends with a quote in large font, centred on an otherwise empty page: “I am because we are.” As she explains elsewhere: My mission to drive empowerment, strengthen engagement, and ensure we remain relevant, is guided by the Ubuntu philosophy: ‘I am because we are.’ This principle highlights the combined strength of the Olympic community and our responsibility to uplift one another. It also underscores the close partnership we share with the International Paralympic Committee. Together, these events serve as a beacon of hope and inspiration, a symbol of human progress with limitless possibilities. Perhaps it’s not quite that: the IOC’s YouTube channel is promising an interview with the new president-elect. Coventry will officially take over in June. And that is very much and completely that. The day’s IOC-related activities are over and the IOC members have the rest of the day off. Action resumes, for IOC completists, and 7am GMT tomorrow. Coventry gives a short acceptance speech: This is not just a huge honour, but it is a reminder of my commitment to every single one of you that I will lead this organisation with so much pride, and I will make all of you very, very proud and hopefully extremely confident in the decision you’ve taken today. Thankyou from the bottom of my heart, and now we’ve got some work together. This race was an incredible race and it made us better, made us a stronger movement. Thankyou very much for this moment, and thankyou very much for this honour. Kirsty Coventry becomes the first woman to hold the post of IOC president. She is a five-time Olympian, having competed in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016, winning seven medals, two of them gold. In fact it’s not an envelope, it’s just a card with a name on it. Bach holds it up, and the name is Coventry’s! Thomas Bach takes to the stage. He is carrying a large and rather showy envelope. Something’s happening! I can tell because we’re no longer listening to bar lounge music, instead being treated to a dramatic slow-motion Olympic highlights package. In 1980 Juan Antonio Samaranch, whose son is a candidate today and indeed was pre-match favourite, also won in the first round of voting. “The figures are not due to be disclosed,” we reported of the vote. “In the past they have either been burnt or flushed away – this time they are locked up.” This year we should at least get the numbers, though it might be worth someone checking the toilets because this is taking ages. True fact: Samaranch’s journey towards IOC leadership started, inauspiciously, with his election as president of the Spanish Roller Skating Federation. Still, shamefully, not an Olympic sport. Our report on the election of Jacques Rogge in 2001 makes it sound much more interesting than this. I quote: The Belgian will have to act swiftly to pacify South Korea’s Kim Un-yong and Canada’s Dick Pound, who were both left feeling bitter after being overlooked for the most important job in world sport. “His first job will be to clear the blood off the carpet,” said one IOC member. Sean Ingle is there for the Guardian today, and with any luck will sniff out some good juice. Or, better still, blood. Thanks to the IOC I am currently liveblogging the broadcast of an album subtitled Finest Bar Lounge Music. A pox on all their houses. For what it’s worth, personally I think finer bar lounge music is available. They’ve just put that 12-year-old Francois Maugame album on shuffle. They’re on Tango del Espacio, aka track 13, now. The next song on the IOC playlist is Love in Any Language, also by Francois Maugame, followed by the same composer’s Neon Dub. Spotify informs me that Maugame gets 502 monthly listeners, potentially all Lausanne-based (it would work out at about 0.7 listens per month for each IOC employee). There is a track on their 2013 album Like a Summer Breeze (Finest Bar Lounge Music) called Jazz for Lynchtime. It seems British media are being shepherded to a spot where they will shortly speak to Sebastian Coe. This suggests, though we can’t be certain about anything at this point, that Coe has not been elected. This is quite aggravating. I am upset. Also, the background music the IOC are currently broadcasting, which Shazam identifies as Like a Summer Breeze by Francois Maugame, seems to extensively plagiarise Morcheeba. While we wait, here are some thrilling highlights of Thomas Bach’s election as IOC president in 2013. I have to say this is a terrible blow for those, such as myself, who quite enjoy a mystifyingly drawn-out process and all the absurdity and hilarity they often involve. But De Kepper isn’t going to tell us who the IOC’s new president is. Instead the IOC, in their infinite wisdom, are going to have a 30-minute break while, with cameras off, the new president is escorted out of the room, undergoes some kind of transformation, and is escorted back in again. This is wildly against all predictions, which suggested a long and drawn-out voting process over several rounds. It’s all done in round one! There is a new president! We have a result! Before we hear it, we need to watch Christophe De Kepper, the IOC director general who is running this show, leaf through a lot of papers for a long time. A woman is striding towards Thomas Bach carrying an envelope! I’m not entirely sure what the hold-up is here. Voting has closed and nothing is happening. It is a boon, however, for fans of pan pipe music. Everyone has voted, and the first round is declared closed. Dramatic music plays. Peaceful music plays. It is interrupted when technical issues become apparent involving a couple of members’ keypads. Some people run around. Voting open! Names of individual candidates have appeared on each member’s keypad. If a voter wishes to abstain, they are told not to make a selection. The question is: which of the candidates do you elect as president of the IOC. In addition to the seven candidates a total of eight IOC members will not be allowed to vote in the first round. They are using an electronic voting process that involves some kind of smart card, which are currently being distributed. All of the important procedural stuff are in the preamble or at the bottom of this page. It’s happening! I’m hoping that at some point this will become fun, but right now someone is reading some small print about voting procedure. The session has not restarted. While we wait, here’s Sean Ingle’s scene-setter: There is going to be a break now while the room is cleared, a security sweep takes place, and all mobile phones and internet-connected devices are handed in. The presidential vote will now start at 2.30pm GMT, aka in approximately 40 minutes. Bach now gives a long speech about how amazing Italy’s Francesco Ricci Bitti is and always has been, and proposes his election as an honorary member of the IOC. Ricci Bitti is an excellent name, very nearly shared with a very fine biscuit. In other IOC-related news before the cameras were turned on Tony Estanguet, former Olympian and president of the Paris 2024 organising committee, was elected as an IOC member, and Belgium’s Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant was elected an IOC vice-president. Ban has been elected as an honorary member of the IOC. He gives a speech about his own “pride” and the “wisdom” of Bach. The IOC is in session. It is starting with a speech from Thomas Bach about the contribution of Ban Ki-Moon, the South Korean former secretary-general of the United Nations, who has chaired the IOC’s ethics commission since 2017 and is himself standing down. It is a big day in the sporting boardroom and backstage hustling department, with Thomas Bach stepping down as president of the International Olympic Committee after 12 years (and taking on the new role of Honorary President for Life: “When I was elected as President 12 years ago, my first words were ‘ouf’, and it’s the same now,” he said in response) and thus forcing them to find someone to replace him. Today we find out who that person will be. There are seven candidates. All of them have published lengthy candidature documents, translated into several languages, which you can find via their individual pages on the IOC website, or from here. They are also profiled more succinctly at insidethegames here. But in very brief, they are: HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein Jordanian royal, president of the Jordanian Olympic Committee, long-time IOC member and former commander in the Royal Jordanian Air Force. David Lappartient French president of the UCI, world cycling’s governing body. Johan Eliasch Swedish-born, British-based billionaire businessman (he officially represents Great Britain on the IOC). President of the FIS, governing body of skiing and snowboarding. Chair of the sports equipment company Head, and former deputy treasurer of the Conservative Party. Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr Spanish son of the former IOC president of the same name. Kirsty Coventry The only woman on the shortlist. Zimbabwean retired swimmer (she won Olympic gold in 2004 and 2008) and the country’s current minister of sport, arts and recreation. Sebastian Coe British former athlete, former Conservative MP, life peer, president of the London 2012 Olympic organising committee, former president of the British Olympic Association and president of World Athletics since 2015, reelected for a third and final term in 2023. Morinare Watanabe Japanese president of the FIG, the International Gymnastics Federation. The rules of the game This is pretty simple. At around 2pm GMT a secret ballot of all IOC members (there are currently 109 of them, including all seven candidates, though only 106 have turned up) will take place. Those standing for election, and their compatriots, are not allowed to vote until they or their compatriot are eliminated (though other associates of individual candidates are allowed to vote for them – controversially Samaranch’s family foundation is based in China and has two Chinese IOC members on the board). To be elected a candidate needs to win a simple majority of all votes cast. If nobody obtains a majority of the votes, whichever candidate has the fewest votes will be eliminated and a fresh round of voting will be held, and the process will be repeated until someone gets a majority. If no candidate wins a majority the precise number of votes cast for each candidate in each round of voting will not immediately be made public, but if the two worst-performing candidates have the same number of votes there will be a head-to-head elimination vote-off, and if they also get the same number of votes in that the IOC president himself will decide which of them gets the boot. This is vanishingly unlikely but would be quite fun. As soon as someone is elected the full results of each round of voting will be published. And that’s it. Strap yourselves in, let’s see what gets served up!
Author: Simon Burnton