The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed a seven-person shortlist of candidates to succeed Thomas Bach as president.
Bach, an Olympic gold medallist in fencing, has held the position for 12 years but will leave the role next year.
Fellow Olympic champion Sebastian Coe, who won gold twice for Great Britain and helped London win the right to host the 2012 Olympic Games, is a leading candidate as is Jordan’s Prince Feisal Al Hussein and Juan Antonio Samaranch Junior of Spain. Samaranch’s father was IOC president for 21 years.
Kirsty Coventry, a two-time gold medal-winning swimmer for Zimbabwe, is the only woman on the shortlist. The IOC has never had a female president in its 130-year history.
France’s Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) president David Lappartient, Japan’s Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) president Morinari Watanabe and Johan Eliasch, the Swedish-British president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), round out the list.
The seven candidates met the September 15 deadline to confirm their intention to run with a winner voted on by the 111 members of the IOC in March.
Bach, 70, succeeded Jacques Rogge as president in 2013, after beating five other candidates, including pole vaulting great Sergey Bubka, to the role.
He has since presided over three summer and three winter Games, including Paris this summer.
(Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
