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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced seven candidates for the March 2025 election for the position of the next president to replace Thomas Bach.
IOC members Sebastian Coe, Prince Feisal Al Hussein, Kirsty Coventry, David Lappartient, Johan Eliasch, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. and Morinari Watanabe are the candidates. Bach was elected in 2013, and his term limit expires next year.
IOC presidents are elected for an eight-year term that is renewable once for four years.
The candidates are from the UK, Jordan, Japan, Spain, Zimbabwe, Sweden and France.
The IOC was created in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas. The organization is situated in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC is the authority responsible for organizing the Summer, Winter, and Youth Olympics. The IOC is the governing body of the National Olympic Committees and of the worldwide Olympic Movement. The IOC’s term is for all entities and individuals involved in the Olympic Games. As of 2020, 206 NOCs were officially recognized by the IOC.
The IOC President is elected by secret ballot by the IOC members at a session scheduled for March of 2025. The President’s term of office is eight years and can be renewed once, for four years.
Bach was elected to an eight-year term as IOC President at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires in September 2013. He secured 49 votes in the final round, giving him the majority needed to be elected. He succeeded Jacques Rogge, who had served as IOC President from 2001 to 2013. Bach successfully ran for a second four-year term at the 134th IOC Session in 2019.
Bach’s successful election came against five other candidates: Sergey Bubka, Richard Carrión, Ng Ser Miang, Denis Oswald and Wu Ching-Kuo. The vote was no contest in favour of the German at a 93–1 vote from 94 cast.
Thomas Bach
Thomas Bach of Germany is the outgoing president of the IOC. He is a lawyer, former foil fencer, and Olympic gold medallist. Bach has served as the ninth and current president of the IOC. He is the first-ever Olympic champion to be elected to that position. Bach is also a former German individual foil champion and former member of the German Olympic Sports Confederation’s executive board.
Recently, he has been heavily criticized for his support of Russia and Russian athletes competing in the Olympic Games. He has also changed his mind midstream on whether the world’s largest nation should compete due to its war in Ukraine. He also faced criticism over his friendly relationship with Vladimir Putin around the Russian systematic doping controversy, however, the IOC did ban Russia for their state-sponsored doping program.
Bach met criticism when it became known in April 2008 that he had a consulting contract with Siemens from the turn of the millennium. It is alleged that Bach organized invitations from the Arab world for the Siemens Group. Siemens supervisory board members criticized that his salary (400,000 Euros), and additional daily payment was “absolutely unusual.” They also criticized a possible conflict of interest, because Siemens profited from contracts related to sports, and overlaps between his professional activities and his work as a sports official.
The candidates
Lord Sebastian Coe, UK
Coe, 67, has been president of World Athletics since 2015. He was also chairman of the 2012 London Olympic Organizing Committee. As an athlete, he won Olympic 1500-metre gold and 800m silver in 1980 and 1984 for Great Britain. Coe has been a federal politician and was on the FIFA ethics board.
Coe has reshaped what was the International Association of Athletics Federation or IAAF, starting with renaming it to World Athletics. Coe saw the development of the Athletics Integrity Unit and change in the Diamond League and World Cross Country Championships. The branding of World Athletics and its events has been reshaped under his tenure.
Prince Feisal, Jordan
Prince Feisal, 60, has been an IOC member since 2010. The former wrestler has been president of the Jordan Olympic Committee since 2003. Feisal has been awarded a number of times in Jordan for his contribution to sport and governance.
Feisal is a Member of the Executive Board, chair of the IOC Working Group on Safeguarding, and chair of the IOC Prevention of Harassment and Abuse in Sport Working Group. He is also vice-chair of the Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commission since 2022 and has been a member of a number of other committees.
Kristy Coventry, Zimbabwe
Coventry, who turned 41 on Monday, has been an IOC member since 2013. She swam for Zimbabwe at the Olympics in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. She won seven medals, two of which are gold. Coventry could become the first female IOC president.
Elected as an IOC Member and member of the Athletes’ Commission from 2013 to 2021. She was then elected as an IOC Member as an individual in 2021. In Zimbabwe, she was named the Minster of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation, a cabinet position, and reappointed to the role in 2023.
She is the only female candidate and the only one from Africa.
Johan Eliasch, Sweden
Eliasch, a 62-year-old native of Sweden, has been president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation since 2021.
Eliasch is the chairman, of ECJ Holdings. He was also a special representative of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, chairman, Aman Resorts, chairman, London Films and founder, of Rainforest Trust, Brazil. Eliasch is currently chairman, of The Saatchi Gallery, London and president, the Global Strategy Forum, United Kingdom.
David Lappartient, France
Lappartient, 51, has been president of the International Cycling Union since 2017 and president of the French Olympic Committee since 2023.
He was elected as an IOC Member in 2022 as the President of the International Cycling Union. In accordance to the Olympic Charter, he will cease to be an IOC Member upon ceasing to exercise the function of UCI President.
His interests lie in working with the World Anti-Doping Agency in Canada, Agence Nationale du Sport of France, CMC Exploitation SA in Switzerland, Comité d’Organisation de Paris 2024, Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français, among others.
Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., Spain
Samaranch, a 64-year-old from Spain, has been an IOC member since 2001 and is one of four IOC vice presidents. His father was IOC president from 1980 to 2001.
Samaranch Junior was in the perfume trade and was a banker. He is now in his second term as an IOC VP. Samaranch is media savvy and an excellent communicator. He has been on the coordinating committees for three Winter Olympics, serving as chair for the 2022 Beijing Games.
Morinari Watanabe, Japan
Watanabe, a 65-year-old from Japan, has been president of the International Gymnastics Federation since 2017.
The next IOC president will be elected at an IOC session from March 18-21 in Greece after candidate presentations to the full IOC membership of more than 100 in January.
He would be the first Asian president if elected at the 143rd IOC Session in March in Greece.
“I want to take on the challenge to transform the IOC,” Watanabe said to media.
This is the first time that a person from Japan has run for the IOC presidency in the 130-year existence of the organization (1894).
Prior to his election in October 2016, he served as general secretary of the Japan Gymnastics Association (2009–16) and was on multiple committees with the Japanese Olympic Committee.
| Last Name | First Name | Nationality | Term |
| Vikelas | Demetrius | Greek | 1894 – 1896 |
| de Coubertin | Pierre | France | 1896 – 1925 |
| de Baillet-Latour | Count Henri | Belgium | 1925 – 1946 |
| Sigfrid Edström | Johannes | Sweden | 1946 – 1952 |
| Brundage | Avery | United States of America | 1952 – 1972 |
| Morris | Sir Michael | UK | 1952 – 1970 |
| Samaranch Torrelo | Juan Antonio | Spain | 1980 – 2001 |
| Jacque | Jaucque | Belgium | 2001 – 2013 |
| Bach | Thomas | Germany | 2013 – |
