Some in the media covering the International Olympic Committee(IOC), are favouring “conciliatory” Belgian Jacques Rogge or South Korean diplomat and bureaucrat Un-yong Kim to Canada’s Dick Pound, for the IOC presidency, when Juan Antonio Samaranch’s term has expired. They consider Pound to be “blunt”.
In an interview with Matthew Fisher of Sun Media, Pound said, “anyone who thinks they know what the IOC thinks is smoking some substance…the race is open and will be until the day of the vote”.
He said, “if you are trying to oppose yourself to me you have to acknowledge the financial independence I have brought to the IOC and then say, ‘but that is only money’. Yes, that has been a success, but it is only a small part of what I have done. A lot of people would say that taking on the anti-doping and Salt Lake City problems was a poisoned chalice. Perhaps a lot of people do not realize how perilously close we came to going under”.
Pound continued, “diplomacy is a lot more than smiling. It is achieving what the IOC wants. That is what WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and getting TV and sponsors to cough up billions has been about.
The perception is that we haven’t handled this (doping) well. The reality is that we have done more than any other organization on the face of the planet. What is clear to me is that the Olympic movement by itself cannot provide a complete solution to doping. We have to bring all the elements to the table. Some are totally dismissive of the IOC, but it is because of me that we got this far”.
Pound said that being a Canadian helps. Fisher writes that whoever wins the presidency will be someone who, like Samaranch, comes from a country that is a relatively small, inoffensive player in global politics.
Pound added, “one of the principal features of being Canadian is that we have been interlocutors and interpreters for the United States”.
On what he would differently if elected president, Pound said, “there would be stylistic differences. I would try to build on a very good platform that Samaranch built on from what he inherited. I would draw more on the experience of IOC members and stress youth and sport development. I would also be more pro-active in the whole area of doping”.
