UCI president David Lappartient has formally introduced his candidacy to exchange Thomas Bach because the president of the International Olympic Committee. Lappartient is amongst seven candidates for function, with the election to happen in the course of the 143rd IOC Session in Greece in March.
Lappartient’s Olympic ambitions have lengthy been rumoured, and hypothesis a couple of presidential bid intensified final 12 months when he took over as president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), a task he was permitted to hold out alongside his UCI duties.
The Frenchman remained coy about his IOC candidacy as not too long ago as this weekend, when he was interviewed by L’Équipe on the French Olympic ‘parade of champions’ on the Champs-Élysées.
“I invite you to learn the IOC’s press launch on Monday, as they are going to announce the names of the candidates at the moment. I will not remark earlier than Monday,” Lappartient stated. “What I’ve stated is that I’m excited about persevering with to serve the Olympic motion within the broadest sense of the time period in my worldwide federation, on the CNOSF and on the IOC. Where I slot in, we’ll see.”
The deadline for people to substantiate their candidacy was midnight on Sunday. On Monday, the IOC introduced that Lappartient was among the many seven candidates, together with World Athletics president Sebastian Coe and Juan Antonio Samaranch, the son of the previous IOC president.
Zimbabwe sports activities minister Kirsty Coventry is the one feminine candidate. The checklist of candidates is accomplished by International Gymnastics Federation president Morinari Watanabe, Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, and International Ski Federation president Johan Eliasch.
The incumbent IOC president Thomas Bach was first elected to an eight-year time period in 2013 and re-elected to a second, four-year time period in 2021. The German confirmed on the Paris 2024 Olympics that he wouldn’t search one other time period when his mandate expires in March.
The seven candidates to succeed Bach will current their programmes to IOC members at a non-public assembly in Lausanne in January earlier than the election takes place in the course of the IOC Session from March 18-21 in Greece.
Lappartient was elected president of the French Cycling Federation in 2009 and was elected president of the European Cycling Union (UEC) 4 years later.
At the Bergen World Championships in 2017, Lappartient defeated incumbent Brian Cookson to be elected president of the UCI, and he was re-elected with out a contest in Leuven in 2021. His present time period as UCI president expires in 2025.
Lappartient has but to publish his candidature doc, however his IOC marketing campaign will possible spotlight the UCI’s organisation of a quadrennial, multi-discipline biking World Championships, the primary of which befell in Glasgow final 12 months.
When oligarch Igor Makarov’s presence on the UCI Management Committee was questioned within the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in the meantime, Lappartient took care to insist that the UCI stance mirrored that of the IOC.
“We’re aligned with the IOC place, which is that Russian groups and riders aren’t to participate in any competitions. However, the Russian or Belarus Olympic Committees aren’t suspended, so neither are their nationwide federations and their officers,” Lappartient advised Cyclingnews in 2022, when Makarov had been named on lists of people sanctioned by the Australian, Canadian and British governments following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Makarov was faraway from the British sanctions checklist earlier this 12 months after he renounced his Russian citizenship in 2023 and have become a citizen of Cyprus. He stays a member of the UCI Management Committee.
