Hickey Wins ANOC Vote for EB Nod

(ATR) The intrigue over a seat on the IOC Executive Board appears to be settling with the selection of Patrick Hickey of Ireland as the nominee from the Association of National Olympic Committees.

Hickey won a secret ballot conducted among the 30-member ANOC Council on Tuesday at IOC headquarters in Lausanne.

Hickey disclosed that result to reporters shortly after the Council meeting but would not divulge any other details, such as whether there were any other candidates.

ATRhas learned that Hickey had no other opposition and that the vote was 17-4 in favor of Hickey with one abstention.

Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland and European Olympic Committees, said the vote was conducted in private, with the total being announced on Wednesday.

Mario Vazquez Rana, ANOC President and current holder of the EB seat for the organization, declined to comment to media as he walked out of the meeting.

He must give up the EB seat in 2012 when he will retire from the IOC at age 80. Vazquez Rana still has three years left in his current term as ANOC president, serving since 1979. In March he will seek another term as president of the Pan American Sports Organization, which he has led for nearly 40 years.

Other members of the Council walked briskly out of Chateau de Vidy, seemingly anxious to leave. Tensions have been building among Council members over the leadership of Vazquez Rana and whether change is needed.

Larry Probst of the U.S. Olympic Committee characterized the meeting as having "good discussion and good conversation". He wouldn’t say if he was happy with the decision, instead saying "everybody was very thoughtful and professional and everything will be revealed tomorrow."

Hickey’s nomination must be ratified by the 204-member ANOC general assembly in Moscow next April. While he is the nominee of the ANOC Council, Around the Ringsis told that other candidatesmay step forward for the nomination at the meeting.Whoever is nominated in Moscow would then need to face a July vote by the IOC Session in London.

There is no written rule that a seat on the EB is earmarked for ANOC, or the summer and winter international federations, which both send a member to the IOC board.

Hickey, in his role of the president of the European Olympic Committees, has been openly critical of the direction of ANOC and the lack of a plan for succession when Vazquez Rana retires. Vazquez Rana has attacked Hickey as greedy for power.

Whether all is now sweetness and light will become apparent Wednesday. A joint meeting between the EB and ANOC Council is set for the morning, followed by a briefing for the press.

Written and reported in Lausanne by Ed Hula III.