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UCI chief David Lappartient is making a run for one of sport’s most powerful positions in a bid to become the president of the International Olympic Committee.
Lappartient is among seven candidates vying for the Olympic top spot to take over for outgoing president Thomas Bach, IOC officials confirmed Monday.
The decision will be made during the 143rd IOC Session set for March 18-21 in Greece.
The 51-year-old Frenchman will be among the favorites to take over the helm of the sprawling Olympic Games with its global reach and its multi-billion-dollar budget.
Lappartient was first elected as UCI president in 2017 when he beat Brian Cookson. He won a second term at the helm of the UCI, and was elected to serve an eight-year term as a member of the International Olympic Committee in 2022.
Other candidates include Sebastian Coe, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., HRH Prince Feisal al Hussein, Kirsty Coventry, Johan Eliasch, and Morinari Watanabe.
Other top contenders include Coe, a two-time gold medalist who’s been the president of World Athletics since 2015, and Spain’s Samaranch Jr., the son of the former IOC president who served from 1980 to 2001.
A proven IOC insider
Lappartient has proven a smooth operator among the elite of international governing bodies to keep cycling well-positioned within the Olympic Games.
He played a high-profile role at the recent 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and was seen hobnobbing with political and IOC leaders across the competition.
There are strong indications that Lappartient is pushing behind the scenes for cyclocross to become an Olympic sport to be contested during the Winter Games, which would make cycling the first discipline to compete in both Summer and Winter Games.
David Lappartient, candidat à la présidence du CIO. 7 sur la ligne de départ. pic.twitter.com/5BPrVKSLK8
— Yannick Cochennec (@YCochennec) September 16, 2024
During his stint at the UCI, Lappartient pushed diversity, inclusion, and sustainability as well as expanded the governing body’s reach into gravel, E-racing, and other emerging disciplines.
Lappartient also successfully staged the first “Super Worlds” in 2023, an event that includes all of cycling’s disparate disciplines with one event slated for every four years.
He hasn’t been without his distractors, with some critics suggesting he’s too autocratic in style and puts the UCI’s interests ahead of event promotors.
Sources initially suggested that Lappartient would make a run for the IOC top spot in another four years, but Bach did not try to force a rule change to stay on beyond existing term limits and is leaving after serving two full four-year terms.
There was no official word from Lappartient following Monday’s confirmation.
