Morinari Watanabe, president of the International Gymnastic Federation (FIG), attends a press conference at the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in Aigle, Switzerland, June 3, 2022.
13:42 JST, August 12, 2024
Paris (Jiji Press)—Japanese President Morinari Watanabe, president of the International Gymnastics Federation and a member of the International Olympic Committee, plans to run for the next IOC president, it was announced Sunday.
The IOC will hold presidential elections as early as March 2025, as the term of the current president, Thomas Bach, a German Olympic gold medalist in fencing, expires in June 2025.
The IOC has never had an Asian president.
Watanabe told reporters that the Japanese Olympic Committee’s decision would be needed to announce his possible candidacy for the IOC presidency. “I’m waiting for that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Watanabe praised Bach, who took office in 2013, for successfully hosting the 2021 Tokyo Olympics amid the COVID-19 pandemic, paving the way for the success of the Paris Olympics.
JOC Secretary-General Mitsugi Ogata said Watanabe’s possible offer was “very meaningful” to Japan and the JOC. “We will of course cooperate,” Ogata said.
Other potential candidates to succeed Bach include IOC Vice President Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe of Britain and David Lappartient, president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee.
