Olympic presidential candidate Prince Feisal sees real-world politics playing a bigger role
Candidate to the presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Prince Feisal Al-Hussein speaks during a press conference following a presentation before their fellow IOC members in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan 30, 2025 (Fabrice Coffrini/Pool Photo via AP)
GENEVA (AP) — The IOC presidential election on Thursday takes place in a political climate that seems a world away from the last contested Olympic leadership vote in 2013.
“There is a very different flavor between the two elections,” said Prince Feisal of Jordan, among three of the seven candidates on this ballot who was an IOC member and voted 11 ½ years ago.
“It was more personality driven,” Prince Feisal told The Associated Press in an online interview from Amman, “rather than necessarily global economics and politics driven that might have an impact this time. We don’t want sports to be politicized but the reality is we are part of this global environment.”
Real-world politics was present last time in Buenos Aires, when current candidates Juan Antonio Samaranch and Kirsty Coventry, a new member then, also were voters. So was Prince Feisal’s sister Princess Haya, then president of equestrian’s governing body.
On that day, IOC president Thomas Bach famously had a call within minutes of winning a six-candidate contest after a phone was thrust in his hand to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Then, in September 2013, Russia was the next Olympic host with the Sochi Winter Games opening less than four months later. Russia was then a more trusted IOC partner, before it tainted those games with a state-backed doping scheme and broke the United Nations-backed Olympic Truce for Sochi with the conflict in Ukraine.
Paris Olympics
- The Olympics are more than fun and games. They’re a billion-dollar business with political overtones.
- Breakdance will make it’s debut as an Olympic sport in Paris.. Here’s what else will be different at this year’s games.
- Follow all of AP’s coverage of the Summer Games.
A big issue for Bach’s successor is protecting the next Summer Games, opening in July 2028 in Los Angeles, when the United States is shaping up as an unpredictable partner for its long-term allies in the multilateral world order the IOC sees itself belonging to.
Diplomatic challenges are normal in Jordan, led by Prince Feisal’s elder brother King Abdullah II, who met with President Donald Trump at the White House last month.
“In Jordan, this is what we have been living in since even before I was born,” said the 61-year-old prince of a kingdom that shares borders with Syria, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia.
The Palestinian Olympic body, which sent eight athletes to the Paris Summer Games last year, is one of 206 recognized national teams, plus the official refugees team.
Asked if the Palestinian team will compete in LA, Prince Feisal said: “I would hope and I would pray that they would be there as part of a long-term solution.”
“Can I guarantee it? No. Does it worry me? Yes. We have got to stand for peace. Sports can play that healing role and can bring people together. We have seen that at the Olympic Games.”
The last gathering of the IOC election candidates before the election meeting, near the site of Ancient Olympia in Greece, was at a meeting of European officials in Frankfurt — just as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was at the White House.
“There was a lot of discussion about how that went and what the implications are,” Prince Feisal, an IOC executive board member since 2019, said of the impact felt in Frankfurt.
The prince echoed Olympic leaders in stating his belief that President Trump wants the LA Olympics to be a success.
“I don’t think he wants to miss that opportunity,” Prince Feisal said, acknowledging “there are going to be issues. There are opinions we are going to have to take into consideration. But at the end of the day we have to do what is right.
“It is a question of convincing him of the values that we stand (for) should be values that he should uphold,” he said. “And I think that is a possibility.”
Will Prince Feisal be the IOC leader navigating the three-year lead-in to Los Angeles with the Trump administration? He suggested the voting Thursday could go to at least a fourth round.
“If it’s not me, I’m fine with that,” he said. “At least I have been part of this debate.”
___
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
