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≡ IOC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ≡
“We can see that with the exit from the World Health Organization, the exit from the climate agreement, there is a desire to call multilateralism into question.
“This will naturally be an issue, and I remind you that the awarding of the 2034 Olympics to Salt Lake City is conditional on this subject.”
That’s French National Olympic Committee President and Union Cycliste Internationale President David Lappartient, speaking with Agence France Presse, in an interview published on Monday.
He was speaking about the U.S. and the Trump Administration, and Lappartient said he looks forward to meeting with Trump if he is elected:
“It will be an opportunity to reaffirm the autonomy of the sports movement, [and] that it is up to the IOC to define who should and should not participate in the Games.”
He also noted that Trump is a major sports fan, which is a plus:
“I don’t think it’s disputed that he loves sport. He even organised the ‘Tour de Trump’, a competitor to the Tour de France. I tell myself that a man who organises bike races, by definition, there may be something good!”
Lappartient, 51, is considered a real contender in the upcoming election for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee, to be decided on 20 March at the 144th IOC Session, to be held in Greece.
He has been an IOC member only since 2022, but has forged a solid record as the UCI chief, with a great success at the first combined UCI World Championships in Glasgow (SCO) in 2023, with more than 190 world championship events held. The UCI will also take its World Road Championships to Africa for the first time in 2025, to Kigali (RWA).
Lappartient was elected as the head of the CNOSF in 2023 and is credited with calming a fractious political situation within the NOC. And IOC chief Thomas Bach (GER) turned to him to head the IOC’s liaison with the e-sports community, resulting in the announcement in 2024 of an Olympic Esports Games, to be held in 2025 (now more likely in 2026 or 2027).
In the interview, Lappartient went a bit further than his mostly aspirational comments in his candidate statement, on Russia and transgender participation:
● “Historically, Russians have always been a sporting nation and the very role and mission of the IOC is to unite people in a more peaceful way through sport.
“They are destined to naturally regain a place in the world of sport. There will be a decision to be taken in due course on the subject, but a country is not destined to be permanently excluded from the Olympic movement, that’s clear.”
● “Everyone is welcome in the world of sport, transgender people are welcome. But the participation of transgender people in competitions in the gender in which they would like to compete is not a fundamental right. …
“The IOC says that it must be regulated sport by sport, which is not illogical. I think we can’t do without scientific research, which takes time.”
As for the upcoming Olympic hosts, Lappartient had no doubts about Los Angeles for 2028, and as one of those involved in developing the successful bid for the French Alps 2030 candidature, noted that “Artificial snow does not necessarily seem to me necessarily a bad thing.”
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Lappartient’s interview timing is not a random act of kindness, but in advance of Thursday’s crucial presentation by the seven candidates, to a closed audience of IOC members in Lausanne, Switzerland (with some no doubt watching online).
The other candidates include Prince Feisal Al-Hussein (JOR), Sebastian Coe (GBR), Kirsty Coventry (ZIM), Johan Eliasch (GBR), Juan Antonio Samaranch (ESP) and Morinari Watanabe (JPN). Like Lappartient, Coe (athletics), Eliasch (ski and snowboard) and Watanabe (gymnastics) are all heads of International Federations.
Lappartient is 51 – only Coventry is younger (41) – and unlike all the rest, does not need any special age dispensation from the IOC membership to be elected for a full eight-year term and a second, four-year term. That’s in his favor.
The conventional wisdom is that Coe, Coventry, Lappartient and Samaranch are the front-runners in this campaign, with Thursday’s audiences an important step toward March. But the most important steps are the one-on-one conversations the candidates are having with the other members, in advance of the vote in March.
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