Seb Coe wants to be IOC president

World Athletics president Seb Coe has not ruled out a bid to become the first British president of the International Olympic Committee.

With only two years of Thomas Bach’s term remaining, an election is expected in 2025.

In an interview with The Times, the president of World Athletics and two-times Olympic champion has indicated that it is a role he would consider. “I’m not ruling it in, and I’m certainly not ruling it out,” he said.

Coe, who is already an IOC member, has confirmed that he will stand for re-election as the president of his sport in Budapest in August. It would be his third and final term in charge, having first been elected in 2015.

“I genuinely feel that the job I’m doing now represents the ultimate for me,” he says. “You join an athletics club at 11 and one day have the opportunity to grab leadership of the sport and shape it. This has never been a stepping stone to something else.”

However, there are senior figures within the Olympic movement who would support the 66-year-old’s candidacy for the IOC role, based on the success he has had in reforming a governing body that was reeling from a corruption scandal when he took charge.

“Anybody who takes that role [IOC presidency] in 2025 needs to be asking some important questions,” Coe said. “Does sport really, genuinely, understand the challenge before it — its relevance, its salience, navigating the most complicated political landscape while holding on to its moral compass?”

Insiders believe there may be a clamour for Bach’s tenure to be extended, given the 69-year-old German’s final term has been disrupted by the pandemic. Kirsty Coventry, the former Zimbabwean swimmer who joined the IOC after winning two Olympic golds, is another possible candidate, as is Juan Antonio Samaranch Salisachs, an IOC vice-president and the son of the former president Juan Antonio Samaranch.