Olympics & Paralympics

Japan’s Morinari Watanabe Enters IOC Presidential Race

Kate Green for OIS/IOC/Handout via REUTERS
President of the International Gymnastics Federation Morinari Watanabe addresses the audience in Working Zone 3 on the Prevention of Harassment & Abuse in Sport during the Olympism in Action Forum in the Exhibition and Convention Centre of Buenos Aires ahead of The Youth Olympic Games, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 5, 2018.

Jiji Press

12:09 JST, September 17, 2024

London (Jiji Press)—Japan’s Morinari Watanabe, president of the International Gymnastics Federation and a member of the International Olympic Committee, is running for the IOC presidency, the committee said Monday.

Watanabe, 65, is one of the seven candidates announced by the IOC to succeed Thomas Bach as president of the committee.

The IOC will hold a presidential election in March 2025 as Bach’s current term expires in June that year.

Bach, 70, who is from Germany, is the ninth IOC president. He assumed the post in 2013 and is now serving his second term.

It is the first time that a Japanese has run for the presidency of the IOC, which was launched in 1894.

Watanabe is also an executive board member of the Japanese Olympic Committee. He was involved in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, held in 2021 after a one-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as an executive board member of the Tokyo Games organizing committee.

Others who entered the IOC presidential race include Britain’s Sebastian Coe, 67, president of the World Athletics, Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch, 64, IOC vice president, and Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, 41, an Olympic swimming champion and a member of the IOC Executive Board.

Of the previous and incumbent IOC presidents, eight are from Europe and one is from the United States. From Asia, South Korea’s Kim Un-yong ran for the IOC presidency in 2001, and Singapore’s Ser Miang Ng and Taiwan’s Wu Ching-kuo in 2013, but they were defeated.

The new president will be elected by a vote of over 100 IOC members for a first term of eight years until 2033. The candidates will explain their commitments to the IOC members in January next year.

An IOC presidential candidate must remain an IOC member during the election period. An IOC president must also remain an IOC member during his or her term in office. In principle, the retirement age for IOC members is 70.