IOC move on election rules puts up legal hurdles to Coe running for top Olympic job

GENEVA: In a move by the International Olympic Committee that apparently could block Sebastian Coe as an expected presidential candidate, the Olympic governing body has clarified its complex election rules before a deadline Sunday to enter the race.

A letter seen Wednesday by the Associated Press was sent by the IOC's ethics commission to the 111 members, including Coe and several more likely candidates in the contest to succeed Thomas Bach next year.

Details in the two-page letter dated Monday specified why Coe, the 67-year-old president of the track governing body World Athletics, would seem ineligible to complete a full first IOC mandate of eight years.

The winning candidate must be a member of the IOC on election day, scheduled for March in Greece, “and during the entire duration of their term as IOC President,” the letter stated.

Coe's IOC membership is conditional on being president of World Athletics, a role he must leave in 2027 on completing the maximum 12 years in office.

Another expected candidate, IOC Vice President Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., who turns 65 in November, could also have legal issues with the standard age limit of 70 for members defined in the Olympic Charter rules book.

The charter “makes no exceptions for the president, who is an IOC member under the same conditions as all the other members,” stated Ethics Commission chairman Ban Ki Moon, the former United Nations secretary general, who signed the Sept. 9 letter.

Coe is widely considered the most qualified candidate to lead the IOC next. A two-time Olympic champion in the men's 1,500 meters, he was later an elected lawmaker in Britain's parliament, led the 2012 London Olympics organizing committee and has presided at World Athletics for nine years.

The legal hurdles are stacking up just days before the IOC-set deadline for candidates to send a letter of intent to Bach, who will leave as president next year after reaching his 12-year term limit.

Kirsty Coventry, an Olympic gold medalist swimmer who is the sports minister of Zimbabwe, and David Lappartient, the French president of cycling's governing body, have had support from Bach in recent years.

Other candidates could include two of the four IOC vice presidents — Nicole Hoevertsz of Aruba and Spaniard Samaranch, whose father was IOC president for 21 years until leaving in 2001.

Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan is a potential candidate who could be the first president in the IOC's 130-year history from Asia or Africa.