By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) – International Olympic Committee presidential candidate David Lappartient is prepared to sit down with Donald Trump in the Oval Office and tell the U.S. president the IOC’s autonomy must be respected.
The Frenchman is president of the International Cycling Union (UCI) and French Olympic Committee while also being an IOC member and president of the organisation’s Esports commission.
Lappartient, who is running to replace outgoing IOC chief Thomas Bach, believes his multiple roles are an advantage in next Thursday’s vote although his critics have said he is spreading himself too thinly.
A political animal who has held multiple local representative mandates, the 51-year-old is no stranger to electoral jousting.
In 2017, he beat incumbent and odds-on favourite Brian Cookson to become UCI president, swinging the votes in the final stretch.
The IOC job is a huge task, which requires soft power and diplomacy amid a hot debate on the participation of transgender athletes after Trump issued an order to exclude transgender girls and women from female sport.
The order has triggered what is likely to be a long, complex clash with global sports authorities as the U.S. counts down to the 2028 LA Olympics.
Bach, however, said last week that Trump had been a long-time supporter and promoter of the LA Games, and that the IOC was confident of his continued support.
IOC AUTONOMY
“So I imagined the new president of the IOC, whoever he is, and I pictured myself in that position in the Oval Office, in a discussion with President Trump, and we have seen that sometimes those discussions don’t go according to plan,” Lappartient told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
“When a country hosts the Games, it undertakes to respect the Olympic Charter, which sets out a number of principles, including that of autonomy.
“The message I would like to pass on (to Trump) is that our autonomy must be respected. But our decisions must not be taken from an ideological angle either.”
Lappartient shares fellow candidate Sebastian Coe’s view that the inclusion of transgender athletes should not prevail over fairness, but he said the decision should be made by the IOC rather than letting the international federations (IFs) rule on the matter as far as the Olympics are concerned.
“The idea is that the matter is settled before 2028,” he said.
Lappartient is one of seven candidates to succeed Bach, four of which are international federation presidents.
Although no IF president has ever held the position, Lappartient is confident his versatility could be a deciding factor in the election.
SOFT POWER
“International Federations can sometimes be powerful and can also generate a certain amount of fear. But I have a second hat, which is that I am also president of the National Olympic Committee,” the 51-year-old said.
“And all the (IOC) presidents, whether President Bach or President (Jacques) Rogge before him, were president of the German and Belgian NOCs (respectively).
“So my case is also that of an NOC president being a candidate. I’m also familiar with this important aspect of Olympism. I’d say that it’s an advantage to be president of an NOC and president of an International Federation at the same time.”
Lappartient, who vows to bring the Olympics to Africa for the first time having handed this year’s cycling world championships to Rwanda, also hopes Russian and Belarusian athletes can make a full return to the Games once there is a peace treaty in the war with Ukraine.
“A country is not destined to be suspended indefinitely by the IOC. So yes, we will naturally have to raise this issue with the Russian NOC after the peace treaty to see how we can effectively get out of this situation,” he explained.
Soft power will be key, as always with the IOC, the most influential sporting organisation in the world.
“You can’t lead a revolution with IOC, it has to be about evolution,” Lappartient said.
In next Thursday’s election in Greece, he will be pitched against IOC vice-president Juan Antonio Samaranch, World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, multiple Olympic swimming champion Kirsty Coventry, who is Zimbabwe’s sports minister, and Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan.
International Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe and Olympic newcomer and multimillionaire Johan Eliasch, who heads the International Ski Federation, complete the list of candidates.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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