Can Coe breast the tape in race for Olympic crown?

Sebastian Coe is bidding to become president of the IOC in today’s knife-edge election, says Lawrence Ostlere. And the British great must see off a Spaniard with a giant reputation

- Lawrence Ostlere

When Sebastian Coe arrives in the soft-furnished auditorium of the luxurious Costa Navarino resort in Greece, where today’s IOC presidential election will be held, he will know this is his one-and-only shot at the Olympic throne. Aged 68, Coe is technically too old to last a president’s eight-year term and the IOC’s rules will need to be bent if he wins. That can be done, but he certainly won’t be standing at the next election: this is it, now or never.

The IOC president is the most powerful office in sport, carrying sway not just inside the vast Olympic machine but across the globe, acting as politician, diplomat and dealmaker with world leaders including authoritarian regimes – Saudi Arabia is expected to jostle with India and Indonesia for the right to host the 2036 Games.

The new president’s skills will be severely tested over the next decade by challenges from the climate crisis and deep-rooted divides over gender identity, to the arrival of AI and the changing ways fans consume entertainment. Then there is LA ‘28 on the horizon and the ominous prospect of Donald Trump seizing an Olympic Games for his own means.

There are seven candidates running for the presidency in Greece this week, and they are at the mercy of the 109 members who will vote electronically in the room. The membership is an exclusive club of royalty, sports executives and former athletes from all over the world, featuring a Puerto Rican businessman, a former Djiboutian PE teacher, an Aruban swimmer and Princess Nora of Liechtenstein. It is this eclectic mix of people who must decide who takes power.