IOC needs clear stance on gender, says presidential hopeful Coe

LONDON : Sebastian Coe "soft-launched" his bid to become the next president of the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday, saying it was a role he feels he has been building towards his whole life and that the organisation is ready for change.

The World Athletics president, one of seven people bidding to replace Thomas Bach in what would be the culmination of an extraordinarily successful sporting career, said the IOC needed clearcut policies to protect women's sport to avoid scandals such as the one in boxing at this year's Paris Games.

A multiple world record holder, Coe won back-to-back Olympic 1,500 metres gold medals and, after a diversion as a Member of Parliament, delivered the hugely successful 2012 London Olympics.

He became WA president in 2015, initiating widespread reforms, and has had a long commercial career in sports marketing.

"I have been in training for this for most of my life. I have a plan and a vision and I think I can make a difference," the 68-year-old Briton told reporters in London in his first formal news conference, ahead of the release of his manifesto next month.

"For anyone who joins an athletics club at the age of 11, who spends their whole life in the Olympic movement, to be entrusted with that role would be an extraordinary honour and a massive moment."

Coe, an IOC member for only four years, has had a somewhat strained relationship with the organisation, despite being the head of its biggest sport.

His decisive action on banning Russian and Belarusians from all athletics, initially due to state-sponsored doping and then after the invasion of Ukraine, was at odds with the views of many IOC members. He antagonised others with his decision to award prize money to Olympic champions in Paris