Seven candidates to contest for IOC Presidency
Seven candidates will compete in the election for the Presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the 143rd IOC Session which will hold from 18 to 21 March 2025 in Greece.
The candidates who want to replace the current President Thomas Bach.
officially announced their candidacies by the deadline of midnight on 15 September 2024. They are; HRH Prince Feisal AL Hussein, World Athletics Chief, Lord Sebastian Coe, Mrs. Kirsty Coventry, Johan Eliasch, David Lappartient, IOC Vice President and son of the body’s former President, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jnr. and Morinari Watanabe
The candidates will present their programmes, in camera, to the full IOC membership on the occasion of a meeting to be held in Lausanne (Switzerland) in January 2025.
According to the new election guideline sent out by IOC ethics commission Chief Ban Ki-moon to all members, the elected IOC President would have to be an IOC member throughout their entire term, while the age limit for IOC membership is 70 even for the top job, with only one possibility of a four-year extension.
The first term for an IOC President is eight years, which means that under current rules Coe and Samaranch, if elected, would exceed the age limit during their first years in office.
