Belgian IOC member Jacques Rogge officially announced his candidacy for the IOC presidency on Monday at a news conference in Brussels.
Rogge, a 58-year-old surgeon, and head of the European Olympic Committees, said, “I will be a candidate because I have a vision of the future of the IOC and a passion for sports. I believe I also have all the necessary experience and skills and the right age”.
Rogge added, “I believe I have the necessary support to be elected”. Supporting Rogge at the news conference were five-time Tour de France cycling champion Eddy Merckx and Belgian IOC member Prince Alexandre de Merod.
Rogge’s main challengers appear to be Canada’s Dick Pound and South Korea’s Kim Un-yong. Pound told a Vancouver audience he has already made up his mind on whether he will run and will announce his decision in the next two weeks; and Kim is declaring his candidacy in Monaco on April 3.
Rogge said his campaign would be based on defending the “essential values of sport” by combatting doping, corruption, violence and the danger of over-commercialization. “Athletes are ambitious perfectionists”, he said. “We owe it to the athletes to be ambitious perfectionists ourselves”.
Rogge said that, if elected, he would give up his job as an orthopedic surgeon and work as a full-time unpaid IOC president. He said he would keep the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Rogge will unveil a detailed campaign program in June, but confirmed that one of his main priorities is to scale down the size of the Olympics.
