The journey to the upcoming International Olympic Committee elections has begun in earnest: seven candidates have thrown their hat in the ring to succeed incumbent president, Thomas Bach, in the most powerful position in international sports.
Notable on the list of candidates is, of course, David Lappartient – the president of both the UCI and the CNOSF (French National Olympic Committee) – alongside rivals like Lord Sebastian Coe (head of the London 2012 organising committee and current World Athletics Federation president) and Juan Antonio Samaranch junior (current IOC vice president and son of the former IOC president).
But these are no ordinary elections and the IOC is no ordinary organisation: its voting is conducted in secret, with candidates lobbying in private, unable to publish campaign videos or go head-to-head with rivals in debates. It’s also governed by a complicated series of rules and regulations, further muddied by revisions to those rules, with back-room politics and manoeuvring determining the victor. So how realistic are Lappartient’s chances of winning, and what does that mean for cycling?
The track record
For starters, we should probably look at Lappartient’s track record at the IOC. Since being elected as a member in 2022, the Frenchman has studiously adopted IOC positions on subjects like Russian and Belarusian participation in sport. He’s also seen as a safe pair of hands after taking the reins of the notoriously rancorous CNOSF in the lead-up to Paris 2024, ushering in a period of stability and making himself highly visible during a wildly popular edition of the Olympics. He also has a good relationship with the outgoing president, Thomas Bach, and as chair of the IOC’s esports commission, is a driving force behind the inaugural 2025 Olympic Esports Games, which will be held in Saudi Arabia for a 12-year term. And it’s abundantly clear that, with his multiple simultaneous roles in sport and local politics, he feels confident in his multi-tasking abilities.
As the president of the UCI, Lappartient has also made moves to expand cycling’s appeal to the Olympic movement – particularly in the winter form of the games. The UCI has held snow test events for the cyclocross discipline, which have been interpreted as a precursor to push for their inclusion in the Winter Olympics; the downhill mountain bike sub-discipline of snowbike has also been a UCI initiative during Lappartient’s time at the top. If either discipline is successful in gaining inclusion to the Winter Olympics, cycling would be unique as the only sport represented in both editions of the games. And as president of the CNOSF, Lappartient was also involved in the negotiations of France’s successful candidacy for the 2030 Winter Olympics, to be held in the French Alps.
The hurdles
So far so good, but here’s where the IOC’s complex election rules enter the picture. Lappartient was elected to the IOC as head of the UCI – his IOC membership expires if he leaves office, but simultaneously, he would have to stand down as UCI president if he were elected as IOC president.
Does your head hurt yet? Mine too.
Lappartient isn’t unique in this predicament – four of the seven candidates standing for the IOC presidency are in the same boat. Sebastian Coe, who has long been tipped for the top gig, is in the IOC as a function of his role in World Athletics; likewise gymnastics federation president Morinari Watanabe and International Ski Federation president Johan Eliasch.
These four candidates can navigate this contradiction by being elected as full IOC members “whose memberships are not linked to any specific function or office”; Escape Collective has sought clarification from the IOC whether Lappartient’s UCI term (or, for that matter, the CNOSF one, which Lappartient is due to vacate in 2025) would be required to end upon election as an individual member, or whether a status change is possible without renouncing his other roles.
What is clear, however, is that due to conflict of interest rules, he would need to stand down as UCI president if he’s successful in his campaign for the position of IOC president. UCI vice president Enrico Della Casa is, according to some sources, positioned to take the wheel at the UCI if Lappartient vacates it – at least until the elections at the UCI Congress in Rwanda in September 2025.
In Lappartient’s favour, at least, is his age. At 51 years old, he sidesteps the age-related concerns which have recently thrown up hurdles in the candidacies of Coe and Samaranch: three days before the opening of candidate submissions, the IOC Ethics Commission threw a spanner in the works with a number of clarifications about maximum age of service (70 years) and the need for all candidates to be IOC members for the duration of their theoretial term as president (which is a roadblock for those elected as heads of Federations with terms expiring before the IOC presidency would). By the new rules, Coe (67) and Samaranch (64) would both be ineligible for the eight-year term of IOC president without special dispensation – it’s possible to push back the 70 year cutoff by four years, but the length of Coe’s turn would still need to be truncated if he was successful in his bid. Given Coe’s public clashes with Bach on subjects such as a Russian ban and prize money for gold medallists, these abrupt and labyrinthine rule changes seem fairly targeted to keep him out of the job, albeit one he seems well-qualified for.
Seven-time Olympic swimming medallist, Kirsty Coventry, has perhaps the clearest path to the top gig – at 41, there are no age-related concerns (although she is seen by some as lacking experience); she is also an individual member of the IOC rather than representing a federation, has political experience as Zimbabwe’s minister for sport, and is reportedly Bach’s preferred candidate. She’s also the only woman standing for election, and the only one from Africa.
The long path to determine the next IOC president began yesterday, but there are several waypoints to pass until we get a resolution. In January 2025, all seven candidates will formally present their candidacy via private video to their IOC colleagues, before a closed election at the IOC Session, held in Athens from 18–21 March. By the end of that, we will have a new IOC president – and if it’s Lappartient, we’ll need a new UCI president too.
Did we do a good job with this story?