Why Coe lost the race to become Olympics chief

Coe finished a distant third in his bid for the crown after making enemies inside the IOC, writes Lawrence Ostlere

-  Lawrence Ostlere

For almost 30 minutes, IOC members and officials sat in tense silence in the windowless auditorium of the Costa Navarino hotel in Greece while the vote was verified. The IOC president, Thomas Bach, finally returned with his compliance officers and a white card in his hand. He stepped on to the stage and as he turned over the card, revealing the name Kirsty Coventry” in block capitals, some of the IOC’s younger female members shed tears of joy.

For so long, the International Olympic Committee has been the domain of men. More specifically, since its inception in 1894, eight of the nine presidents have been greying European men (the sole exception was the former decathlete Avery Brundage, elected in 1952 – he was a greying American man). But in June, Coventry – a decorated Zimbabwean swimmer turned politician – will officially become the first woman, and first African, to lead the Olympic movement.

The result would have been unthinkable until only recently. The IOC held a men-only membership until 1981, and the only previous woman to stand for the presidency, the American former rower Anita DeFrantz, was eliminated in the first round in 2001. But gradually the deeply conservative IOC has entered the modern world, accelerating gender equality both in sport and inside the hierarchy under Bach’s leadership.

As Coventry walked up to the stage to accept the presidency, she embraced her beaten rivals. Among them was Sebastian Coe, who finished in a distant third place. Coe felt this role was his destiny, the natural culmination of a perfectly carved career path: winning Olympic gold on the track; winning a seat in parliament; winning London the 2012 Olympics against all odds; and winning the presidency of World Athletics, the Olympics’ king sport.