World Athletics chief Lord Coe says he can be open to the opportunity of shifting some indoor sports activities from the summer time Olympics to the winter Video games if he turns into the brand new president of the Worldwide Olympic Committee.
Britain’s two-time Olympic 1500m champion revealed his manifesto, exterior on Thursday morning alongside these of the opposite six candidates within the working to succeed Thomas Bach subsequent yr.
“Innovation is vital, we’ve to be open to new concepts,” he advised BBC Sport.
Coe has vowed to shake up the IOC, claiming “an excessive amount of energy is within the arms of too few individuals”.
Describing the election as “the dance I simply could not sit out”, Coe stated: “The query I ask myself as a member is – ‘what enter do I and different members have?’
“And the truth of it’s, there is not sufficient. I am undecided we’re taking advantage of the extraordinary expertise that sits alongside me. The IOC just isn’t a damaged organisation however it may be so significantly better and it wants change.”
In his proposals, Coe reinforces earlier pledges to spice up youth sport, introduce “clear, science-based insurance policies” to shield the feminine class amid persevering with debate in sport over gender eligibility guidelines, and to take heed to athletes.
He additionally says that: “To maintain the Video games we should develop – not simply financially but additionally in attain and relevance. Business companions and broadcasters need modernisation.”
Talking on the Olympic Park in Stratford, Coe – who chaired the organising committee of London 2012 – added: “Local weather change goes to basically make us have to consider the worldwide calendar, the place we take our occasions and the instances of the yr that we take our occasions.
“And a few individuals have even instructed that we’d wish to take a look at the stability between the winter and summer time Video games.
“You will have venues the place some sports activities are indoors. You might in idea take them into one other time of the yr, possibly a winter Video games.
“So these are all of the issues that I’d encourage debate to happen on, as a result of solely when we’ve that debate can we discard the issues that won’t work.
“Solely in collaboration with the winter sports activities and all these organisations on the market. We’ve the Affiliation of Nationwide Olympic Committees. We’ve the summer time federations which can be represented, and a few of that must be a collaborative method. However I feel we must always all the time be open to new and recent considering.”
Final yr the IOC stated analysis confirmed solely 10 nations will be capable to host snow sports activities by 2040 due to the affect of local weather change, and accepted “a have to adapt the Olympic Winter Video games”.
There are at the moment 4 indoor sports activities on the Winter Olympics: pace skating, determine skating, curling, and ice hockey.
In a controversial transfer, World Athletics launched prize cash for gold medallists at Paris 2024 below Coe’s management.
“Most of the issues I’ve accomplished at World Athletics have sparked a debate,” he stated.
“That is not one thing I shrink back from. In a world that adjustments each 5 minutes, we’ve to be very open to evaluation that does not all the time match comfortably with how we see the world. And we must always embrace that.”
Coe vowed to keep away from a repeat of this summer time’s Olympic boxing controversy when two athletes disqualified from the earlier yr’s World Championships for allegedly failing gender eligibility standards – Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting – received gold medals after being allowed to compete by the IOC. Each have insisted they’re girls.
“On the feminine class, it was non-negotiable [to include it in the manifesto],” Coe stated.
“If you do not have clear insurance policies, you find yourself with the place you bought to in Paris. The comforting factor for me is that it couldn’t have occurred in athletics.”
Below Coe, World Athletics has banned transgender girls from competing within the feminine class at worldwide occasions and toughened the principles over the participation of opponents with variations in intercourse growth (DSD).
