IOC member Dick Pound of Canada could walk away from the International Olympic Committee after 23 years, if he’s not elected president, say insiders.
An Olympic source said that, “if, after carrying all the responsibility in so many areas Pound gets rejectd by the IOC, you couldn’t expect him to continue to do the many things that have made the IOC work. They’d be sending a message that everything that Pound has accomplished isn’t regarded as important to the IOC”.
Pound can’t even contact media to get his message out in his presidential campaign, and he can’t hire any professional campaigners or advertisers to do the job for him. The IOC’s Ethics Commission — an offshoot of his anti-corruption work — won’t allow it.
Pound said, “you talk to as many people as you can, and I think I’ve got solid support, but you never know. Everyone speaks through a mask”.
Pound adds, “I’ve been in it now for 23 years. I have done all the hard jobs, I’ve done a lot of the easy jobs. I think I’ve done them well, and we’re going into a period that’s so complicated in the future of the Olympic movement that unless you have a lot of experience…it’s not going to be possible to lead the Olympic movement properly”.
