International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice president Kevan Gosper of Australia has decided not to be a contender for the presidency of the IOC next July when Juan Antonio Samaranch retires from the position. That leaves Canadian Dick Pound and Belgium Jacques Rogge as the only two competitors.
Gosper said he felt “totally fulfilled” by his Olympic experience as an athlete in the 1956 Games and an organizer of the Sydney Olympics. He added “I go in a race if I think I can win, and I’ve certainly thought up until recently I could. If you want something like the presidency you’ve got to want it very, very much and I simply found at the end of the (Sydney) Games I didn’t want it that much”.
Gosper said he believed he may not have had the numbers for the presidency and would have had to spend much of the year overseas lobbying support. He believed that the power base of the other two was stronger. “Jacques Rogge, after all, lives in Europe where half the numbers are and Dick Pound lives in North America where the Americas have many votes. It would have been a very tough haul” he said.
