daniel chigunwe
KIRSTY Coventry has been dubbed a member of the Big Three in the race for the next IOC president.
A lot of attention will be on the Zimbabwean Sports Minister who is a legendary swimmer and Africa’s most successful Olympian in terms of medals won.
She won seven Olympic medals and would be the first woman and the first African to get the job.
The 41-year-old also has the advantage of being the preferred candidate of the current IOC president, Thomas Bach.
It all makes for an election that one astute observer says resembles the Robert Harris papacy thriller, Conclave.
On the surface there is a lot of talk of peace, respect, and love.
But scratch a little deeper and the cardinals are plunging daggers into each other’s backs.
The comparisons with Conclave don’t end there, for this is also an election suffused with secrecy.
None of the presentations in Lausanne will be filmed.
The IOC’s rules also prohibit candidates from holding public meetings “of any kind” to promote their bid or to criticise rivals.
All that will be missing is the puff of white smoke.
One candidate is rumoured to have been so worried about falling foul of the IOC’s directive regarding the use of photographs of other people in their manifesto − “as this would give the perception of support” − that they resorted to using AI images.
It’s little wonder, therefore, that so few people are willing to speak on the record about what they think is really going on inside such an important race.
But in private they are playing informed guessing games about the jostling and machinations to succeed Bach, who has been in power since 2013, when the election takes place in March − and agreeing on more than you might think. − The Guardian/Sports Reporter
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter