With IOC vote finishing line in sight, Sebastian Coe is hopeful

Sebastian Coe said on Friday he feels he has a fighting chance of becoming the next leader of the Olympic movement after he and his rivals faced an intense day of presentations.

In an interview at AFP’s headquarters in Paris, the president of World Athletics spoke about trying to convey his vision of the Olympic future in a short speech to his fellow IOC members in Lausanne 24 hours earlier, with the candidates not allowed to face questions.

“You can't do a great deal in 15 minutes, once you've sort of had a few words of pleasantries and got your other eye on a countdown clock," Coe said.

"I hope I was able to convey a serious approach to the role, that this isn't a one-off. You know, the presentation is important, but content is important."

Coe is not the only one of the seven hopefuls to argue for an IOC in which the members have a greater voice – "I think it's critical," he said – but he argues that he has already put his money where his mouth is.

"One of the things that I think I have achieved at World Athletics is I had a very top-down organisation," the Briton said.

“I'm not remotely comparing what I inherited at World Athletics with the International Olympic Committee, but the general proposition is that my style is very clear. If you've got really smart people around you and your ambition as a leader is to have people that are smarter than you around you, then use them. Don't micromanage."

Coe undoubtedly ruffled feathers within the Olympic movement by deciding to pay prize money to gold medal winners in athletics, starting at last year's Paris Olympics.

It was a move that he argues was "aligned to what we felt were the

interests of the sport" but which he made without consulting his fellow federations. One of Coe's leading rivals for the IOC job, Zimbabwean sports minister Kirsty Coventry, said on Thursday she would prefer to give athletes financial assistance early in their careers.

“I did say to the ASOIF (Association of Summer Olympic International Federations), on reflection, I would have announced it and done it in a different way," Coe said.

Prize money, though, should be just one way of helping Olympic competitors, he argues.

“Actually yesterday I didn't talk about prize money. I did, however, talk about my thinking around freeing up and giving the athletes their data, their assets, content and access that allow them to be more generative in income outside of the field of play.

“And that's an important thing. I think there's a lot more that we can do."

Some seasoned Olympic observers believe Coe has had obstacles thrown in the way of his bid. For example, at 68, he would only be eligible to serve two years as president, according to the IOC's current rules. Another rival for the post, Juan Antonio Samaranch Junior, is 65.

Coe said it was not an issue that bothered him.

“Look, I was deemed eligible to stand and even fighting my way through a cold, I still managed to get a 40-minute run in yesterday morning and I work out every day for an hour."

It was, he argued. "quite analogue" to be talking about people's ages.

"In any other business or any other organisation, there are some pretty clear rules and codes about talking about people's age in interviews and stuff. Anyway, it is what it is."

He believes his past as gold medal-winning Olympic runner, British lawmaker, then international federation chief has stood him in good stead for a role he describes as "a passion, not a job".

Coe will find out if the exclusive club of 100-plus IOC members agree when they vote on March 20 in Greece.

AFP