(ATR) It’s not always the case that the IOC President tops the Around the Rings Golden 25: it’s happened four times in the past 17 years, with Jacques Rogge named three times. And now it’s a record four times for Rogge, who faces a pivotal year with major decisions for the IOC, including selection of his successor. Indeed, leading candidates for the presidency share the number-one ranking.
Rogge, 70, will guide the IOC through the delicate process of forming the sports program for the 2020 Olympics. At the February Executive Board meeting he and his colleagues are supposed to cut one sport from the 26 that were on the London program.
It’s a cut that will cause anguish; Rogge will need to summon the dispassion he applied to his previous work as an orthopedic surgeon. And he may need to convince his colleagues to go through with the operation, reluctant as they may be to cut a sport. Once that’s done, May brings another EB meeting where the IOC will choose from eight sports to replace the one cut.
Other hot button items for Rogge in 2013 will be the election of a 2020 host city, expelling Lance Armstrong from Olympic annals and solving the problem of troublesome or suspended NOCs such as India.
Though he professes to be not nostalgic, Rogge will have the chance to say farewell at various meetings of the Olympic Movement in his final nine months on the IOC. Though he does not have to retire as an IOC member until age 80, Rogge says he will leave when his 12 years as president are over. He became an IOC member in 1991.
The ultimate test of influence for 2013 will be the Sep. 10 election for a successor to Jacques Rogge. The delicate courtship to win support of the members has already begun among the half-dozen potential candidates. The race is governed by stringent rules that largely prevent the campaign from being waged in public.
Declarations aren’t due until June. This race for the most powerful post in the Olympic Movement may be disarmingly quiet.
IOC vice president Thomas Bach of Germany wields influence via his EB membership and chairmanship of the Juridical Commission. Bach, 59, also leads the DOSB, the German Olympic Sport Union. He’s been an IOC member since 1991, a lawyer by profession.
IOC vice president Ser Miang Ng, 63, is a leading and respected member from Asia. Ng is a member of the Finance and Audit commissions. A diplomat and businessman, Ng joined the IOC in 1998.
Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico, 60, stepped down from the EB in 2012, but still holds important posts. A banker by profession, he chairs the Finance and the Audit commissions and is a member of Marketing and TV Rights commissions and the coordination commission for Rio 2016. He was elected to the IOC in 1990.
Mentioned earlier in the Golden 25 for the possibility of their presidential candidacies are Nawal El Moutawakel (6) and Rene Fasel (8). Denis Oswald, Swiss IOC member and rowing federation president, says he is considering whether to run.
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2012 Golden 25: 2
Written and reported by the ATR Staff.
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