Mick Hartley

Oliver Brown in the Telegraph on how Seb Coe was beaten by the old Olympic guard, determined to keep their gravy train rolling:

In 72 hours here at Costa Navarino, the IOC’s sumptuous retreat on Greece’s Ionian coast, he came face-to-face with the true Machiavellian character of this most fiercely protective of private clubs. Until the last moment, his bid team expressed confidence that he was making progress, only for half a year’s work to unravel in two minutes. Thomas Bach’s stunning announcement that his successor had been found on the first ballot of an election expected to last multiple rounds meant just one thing: that Kirsty Coventry, the outgoing president’s preferred successor, had prevailed.

The publication of the vote breakdown 30 minutes later brought home the full horror, showing a mere eight votes for Coe against Coventry’s 49. All those promises of support he had chased? Too many, ultimately, turned out to be empty. Coe, for the first time in his career, had found himself outmanoeuvred, humiliated by the cold, hard, ruthless politics of Bach, his long-time nemesis.

Bach’s style is that of a benevolent dictator, his iron fist concealed in a velvet glove. While he insisted he had no favourite, everybody knew this was a masquerade, with the 41-year-old Coventry nurtured so assiduously for the role of president-elect that she had been sent to address the United Nations. As the clock ticked down, there was a twin imperative at the highest level: to make sure that she succeeded, and that Coe was thwarted….

One of the IOC’s final decisions here was to host its session in 2027 in Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, a palm-fringed resort every bit as luxurious as Costa Navarino. It was one more small signal that the membership, stuffed with superannuated bureaucrats and European nobility, preferred the status quo: the lavish per diems, the exotic travel, the endless gravy train. Why would they want somebody promising profound change? Viewing Coe as the disruptor, they plumped instead for the candidate who would keep their sinecures intact.