Lappartient prepared to tell Trump IOC's autonomy must be respected

PARIS : International Olympic Committee presidential candidate David Lappartient is prepared to sit down with Donald Trump in the Oval Office and tell the U.S. president the IOC's autonomy must be respected.

The Frenchman is president of the International Cycling Union (UCI) and French Olympic Committee while also being an IOC member and president of the organisation's Esports commission.

Lappartient, who is running to replace outgoing IOC chief Thomas Bach, believes his multiple roles are an advantage in next Thursday's vote although his critics have said he is spreading himself too thinly.

A political animal who has held multiple local representative mandates, the 51-year-old is no stranger to electoral jousting.

In 2017, he beat incumbent and odds-on favourite Brian Cookson to become UCI president, swinging the votes in the final stretch.

The IOC job is a huge task, which requires soft power and diplomacy amid a hot debate on the participation of transgender athletes after Trump issued an order to exclude transgender girls and women from female sport.

The order has triggered what is likely to be a long, complex clash with global sports authorities as the U.S. counts down to the 2028 LA Olympics.

Bach, however, said last week that Trump had been a long-time supporter and promoter of the LA Games, and that the IOC was confident of his continued support.

IOC AUTONOMY

"So I imagined the new president of the IOC, whoever he is, and I pictured myself in that position in the Oval Office, in a discussion with President Trump, and we have seen that sometimes those discussions don't go according to plan," Lappartient told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

"When a country hosts the Games, it undertakes to respect the Olympic Charter,