Sebastian Coe Leads Race to Become Tenth President of the IOC

The incumbent ninth president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, earlier announced following the end of a successful Paris Olympics that he intends to stand down after the end of his second term next year. The German lawyer Thomas Bach will conclude his tenure as President at the upcoming 143rd IOC session scheduled in Athens, Greece, on March 18–21, 2025. Seven candidates have entered the race for the tenth president of the International Olympic Committee, including four heads of international federations and three IOC executive members. Ahead of the election, let's take a clear look at the seven contestants who will compete in the election for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee.

Sebastian Coe is a British sports administrator, former politician, and retired track and field athlete. Coe won four Olympic medals, including 1500-meter gold medals at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984. He set nine outdoor and three indoor world records in middle-distance track events. He is the current president of World Athletics since 2015, and he also served as the chairman of the 2012 London Olympic organizing committee after successfully heading the 2012 Summer Olympics. Cole was also elected lawmaker in the British Parliament from 1992 to 1997.

Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. is a Spanish sports executive and financial analyst who currently serves as a member of the Spanish National Olympic Committee. He is the son of former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who has been an IOC member since 2001. He once served on the organizing committees for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Samaranch is the founder of a Spain-based investment bank. He created the Samaranch Foundation to promote the Olympics in China in honor of his father, who was the IOC president from 1980 to 2001.

Kirsty Coventry is the only female candidate for the tenth president of the International Olympic Committee, and if elected, she could become the first female IOC president. Kirsty is a role model and hugely inspirational figure for many women and young people across Africa and the world of sport. She was elected as an IOC Member as a member of the Athletes’ Commission from 2013 to 2021 and then elected as an IOC Member as an individual member in 2021. She was a former Olympic swimmer and world record holder for Zimbabwe at the Olympics in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016, winning two gold medals and seven total medals. In 2016, Coventry retired from swimming after her fifth Olympics, having won the joint-most individual medals in women's swimming in Olympic history.

David Lappartient is a French politician, sporting administrator, and the current president of the International Cycling Union since 2017. He is also the Chair of the IOC’s Esports and Gaming Liaison Group (ELG), the UCI education and training center, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Foundation Board, and the Chair of the International Olympic Committee’s Esports and Gaming Liaison Group.

Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, over the past 15 years, has established himself as a leading figure in the international sports movement. He is currently a Member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), President of the Jordan Olympic Committee (JOC), Chair of the IOC’s Prevention of Harassment and Abuse in Sport Working Group, Vice-Chair of the IOC’s Women in Sport Commission, and a member of several other IOC commissions. He is also the founder and chairman of the peace-building NGO, Generations For Peace.

Morinari Watanabe is one of the seven candidates announced by the IOC to succeed Thomas Bach as president of the committee. Watanabe is currently in his second term as the first Asian president of the International Gymnastics Federation and a member of the International Olympic Committee. He was also appointed an executive board member of Tokyo 2020.

Johan Eliasch is a Swedish-British businessman, investor, and environmentalist. Johan is widely known for his passion for protecting the environment. He was the chief executive of Head, a sporting goods company, from 1995 to 2021 and is now its chairman. In 2006, he co-founded Cool Earth, a charity dedicated to rainforest conservation.

1xBet considers Sebastian Coe the heavy favorite to win the tenth president of the International Olympic Committee, with a 40 percent implied probability. However, we predict Coe to win the next International Olympic Committee because of the influence of being the son of a former IOC president and having already been campaigning intensely behind the scenes.