Olympics: Rogge wins IOC election
Belgian Jacques Rogge has won the race for the Presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after beating off the challenge of South Korea’s Kim Un-Yong to succeed the retiring Juan Antonio Samaranch.
Rogge, one of five candidates, easily topped the vote of IOC members in the Russian capital but it was a two-horse race between himself and Kim whose bid was overshadowed by allegations he offered financial incentives to support his campaign.
Canadian Dick Pound was the other realistic winner beaten in today’s contest.
Rogge had been the favourite throughout the build-up, but Kim and Pound were expected to run him close.
Kim was rated as the nearest challenger but the balance shifted decisively towards Rogge, who is head of the European Olympic Committee.
There had been talk emanating from the IOC session that Samaranch, who is understood to have favoured Rogge, was personally lobbying members to vote for the 59-year-old.
Victory for Rogge has come as a relief to the modernisers in the Olympic movement, for many feared that if Kim had won the presidency it would signal a return to the bad old days of free junkets and all aboard the Olympic gravy train.
Following the Olympic corruption scandal, the South Korean received a ‘‘most serious warning’’ in 1999 after an IOC inquiry found that his son had accepted payments by the Salt Lake City bid committee.
Kim insisted he knew nothing about the arrangements if it had been proved otherwise he would have been forced to resign.
However Rogge too has signalled that as president, the visits banned by Samaranch after the bribery scandal could return, but in a strict form arranged by the IOC.
Pound’s campaign ran out of steam, while American Anita DeFrantz and Hungary’s Pal Schmitt had always be regarded as the most distant of long shots.
Rogge will have a maximum 12 years in office an eight-year term which can be extended by another four.
