Sebastian Coe said if he becomes president of the International Olympic Committee, he would “reset” the organisation to give its members more voice.
Coe and the six other candidates to succeed Thomas Bach published their manifestoes on Thursday and will make presentations to the IOC members in January before the election in March.
The British middle distance legend, who has been president of World Athletics since 2015, is happy to present himself as the candidate for reform.
He said he wants to “free up the voices of the (IOC) membership”.
“There’s no shortage of talent (among the membership). But the question I ask myself as a member is – what input do I and other members have? And the reality of it is, there isn’t enough. There’s too much power in the hands of too few people,” Coe said in a call with international media.
“I am absolutely committed to the concept that the reset must be around sport… and at the epicentre has to be the athletes, whose voices must be heard.”
Coe’s decision to break ranks with other Olympic sports and pay bonuses to gold medallists in athletics at the Paris Games upset many inside the IOC, but he is unapologetic.
“If you want a reset in sport, there has to be a reset in prioritisation of your budgets… if you want to innovate and make sport as exciting as possible.”
Anyway, he said, “I have never seen myself in anything I have done as an insider.”
