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The race for the most powerful post in sports, the presidency of the International Olympic Committee, already enveloped in the secrecy and byzantine regulations of a 130-year-old club, has become stranger — and much nastier — as decision day looms.Smear campaigns have targeted some of the leading contenders in the final days before the vote, scheduled for Thursday in Costa Navarino, Greece.This past weekend, social media posts and little-known websites spread lurid claims of previous actions by two of the candidates, without providing evidence or citing sources — suggestions of personal wrongdoing serious enough to sink their campaigns.
Neither the I.O.C.nor the candidates have commented publicly, but the allegations became grist for gossip at the I.O.C.
gathering.A few days earlier, an anonymous author emailed a complaint, reviewed by The New York Times, to the I.O.C.’s chief ethics official, outlining a different set of allegations — a string of potential campaign rule breaches — without naming particular candidates.The complaint was detailed enough to rattle the campaigns and the committee’s staff.An I.O.C.
spokesman said on Wednesday that the questions raised in the email had been looked into, and were fairly routine matters.Some officials, along with candidates’ aides, have dismissed the online and email allegations as disinformation campaigns of the kind the Olympics have faced in recent years.
But the sensational claims and targeting of individuals have created deep unease around the election of a new leader.The winner will immediately be thrust into managing the sports movement’s relationship with a convulsing world, in which old certainties and alliances are no longer guaranteed.One of the first ports of call for the new president will be the Trump White House, ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patie...