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≡ IOC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ≡
“I had absolutely no intention of running for this job.”
And that made perfect sense for Johan Eliasch, the Swedish-born, British head of the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS), who was only elected to the International Olympic Committee on 24 July 2024, two days prior to the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
But now he is a candidate to lead the International Olympic Committee, one of seven, with the decision to come on 20 March at the 144th IOC Session, in Costa Navarino (GRE). Why?
“I was surprised as everybody else when I finally pushed that ‘Send’ button to send in my application.
“What happened was that, in the lead-up to the deadline, I got phone calls from IOC members who said, ‘Look, you have a background which would be perfect for doing this job.’ And I thought long and hard about it, and what it came down to is the inspirational force that the Olympic Movement is.
“And I grew up with sport. It was the most important thing to me, as a young boy. And I remember those moments watching the [1968] Olympic Games when [Jean-Claude] Killy [FRA] won three gold in Grenoble. Sport was just such a big part of my life. …
“So what it came down to, it’s the hope that it inspires, that everything is possible, anything is possible through sports. And it is such an inspirational force that unite people to come together, find constructive solutions, in an always peaceful and uniting manner.”
Eliasch explained his candidacy and his views on the Olympic Movement in an hour session with reporters from around the world, as the second in a candidate series organized by the International Sports Journalists Association (AIPS) and moderated by its president, Italian journalist Gianni Merlo.
He was elected as the FIS President in 2021, transitioning from a brilliant business career in which he became a billionaire as the chief executive of the sporting goods and apparel company Head from 1995-2021. Now he is suddenly in the running to be the head of the International Olympic Committee.
Eliasch was alternately stern and charming, sometimes answering in detail and skipping past other subjects. But he made some points with clarity:
● Climate impacts: “For winter sport, climate change is potentially an existential threat. The planet wasn’t designed for 8 1/2 billion people living the way we live. And we have to accept that and we have to take action.
“Here, if we look at Winter Games, there is this concept of a rotation scheme. I believe in that because we would then narrow down the venues to a few, that the IFs can support through World Cups, world championships so that maintenance and capital expenditures is kept up so we don’t need to re-create venues. We also have organizations in place. It will reduce complexity, it will also make it less costly and that, I believe, long-term, much better.
“For the summer Games, here, depending on where we go, we also have to be innovative with calendars, obviously in close collaboration with other IFs, other events, so that we don’t have clashes. But we need to be flexible, we need to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and also we have a duty because we have such a big voice, such a reach, to be a strong voice.”
● Doping and integrity: “There is nothing worse than cheating.”
He explained, “With doping, WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] is doing a tremendous job. It is important here, also with the athletes that they take responsibility to follow the rules. Rules are everything and we need to abide by rules here.”
● Participation by athletes from aggressor countries: “My position on that is also very clear: we must defend our neutrality at all cost, as a movement. And when it comes to the athletes, they can’t choose where they were born. Therefore, we need to defend them, so they never become weaponized for political purposes. It’s super important.
“Here, I believe the Individual Neutral Athletes scheme, which worked very well in Paris, that’s the right path to take.”
● Prize money: “I think the Olympics are a little bit different from all other events. The Olympics are based on values. To start with, we only had amateurs, a lot, then we open up to professionals, then we bring in prize money. And, of course, if you do well at the Olympics, you’re set for life.
“We also run into issues here with prize money with different federations having different, shall we say, money expectations, and in some cases, it won’t be meaningful, and in other cases, if you go to the other extreme, IFs will not be able to introduce prize money.
“So, here, I am a believer that, no, the Olympics should not be done with prize money.”
● Transgender participation: “No ands, no ifs, no buts: women’s sport has to be ring-fenced at all costs, based on science and facts, not ideology or chance. And it is pretty much a generally-accepted fact that if you are formed as a human being with the SRY gene, you are not a woman.
“And that is dispositive of all other arguments.”
He underlined, as have all the candidates, the importance of more open discussions among the IOC membership as a path to the future. And while the IOC is in a good place now, there are clouds on the horizon:
“[Current President] Thomas Bach [GER] has done a phenomenal job. He’s taken the Movement to another level in his 12 years. He has done that sometimes very difficult circumstances, with Covid, with conflicts, with introducing a lot of change.
“And now, the next President’s task will be to take it an even higher level. And we may be faced with many challenges as we go along. We have new political variations going on, the world is not exactly united – it’s very divisive and disruptive at the moment – and we have a sea change when it comes to how people consume content, and here the digital space is going to be very important, also AI [artificial intelligence] is going to come in, which is a great opportunity.
“But we need to stay ahead of the curve. We need to do more, with less resources.
“And finally, we need to make sure that we are relevant not only two weeks every two years, but every week, every year.”
Eliasch, an expert in sports marketing from his days at Head, also noted of commercial relationships going forward:
“Let’s face it, sponsorships, that’s something of the past. It’s partnerships today. That is how the people that want to partner up with us, how we can activate those partnerships in the best possible fashion. That is how you’re going to attract partners paying the sort of money that we would want to see.”
He emphasized, this is “not revolution” but “evolution, it’s just staying ahead of the curve.”
That applies to e-sports as well; Eliasch pointed out that while gaming is not a traditional physical activity, “this is very important, to reach younger people.”
Pointedly asked about his use of private aircraft for travel vis-a-vis his passion for sustainability, he noted that he has consistently offset his own carbon use by a factor more than 10 times.
¶
Observed: Eliasch is seen as a long-shot candidate for the presidency, given his very short time on the IOC. Will members trust someone they barely know to be their leader for the next eight years?
His achievements are wide-ranging and supremely impressive, but Eliasch is at a huge disadvantage due to his recent election to the IOC. However, he is not deterred.
A side comment he made illustrates, however, his grip on the levers of the future. His candidate statement, a brilliantly-illustrated, 46-page visual masterpiece, was produced in seven languages, using artificial intelligence for the magnificent imagery. He explained:
“All that art that you saw in my manifesto, that was created through artificial intelligence. This would have taken months, if not years to create all these images.
“This was super-easy, super-fast, less than a day to do all that.”
That might be his best argument to convince anyone who doubts that he has his hands firmly on the future, and that they might want to go along.
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