PARIS: Johan Eliasch has told AFP that if elected Olympics chief he would offer an essential quality in a “divisive world” — that of “hope” — and also the hard-headed business sense to significantly increase the revenues of a “phenomenal brand.”

The 62-year-old president of the International Ski Federation (FIS) was the surprise candidate when seven declared their desire to succeed Thomas Bach as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), probably the most powerful person in global sport.

The Anglo-Swedish billionaire businessman and noted environmentalist says the campaign is likely his “last hurrah” and he will learn if he has been successful when the 100-plus IOC members vote on March 20 in Greece.

While he hopes for a positive outcome personally — he was “very encouraged” by the feedback after his presentation to fellow members last Thursday — hope is also his message to the sporting world.

“Sport has a magic ability to unite people in peace, working together, doing things together,” he said in an interview during a stopover in Paris on his way to the World Skiing Championships in Saalbach, Austria.

“Hope is the other big thing for me here, and that is the belief that anything is possible.

“Kids believing that if they work hard enough, they can do anything. In the disruptive and divisive world that we live in, we need hope.

“Hope that things will get better or hope that we can do things better. So hope is kind of the most precious commodity we have, really.”

Eliasch, who listed sustainability and the IOC retaining its political neutrality as crucial pillars of his programme, believes “expectations are so high” owing to the manner in which revenues have grown during Bach’s 12 years in charge.

However, he says all those facets can be more than matched, if the right person is at the helm — but if the wrong person is in charge, the IOC risks “falling from the top floor to the ground. We have to increase revenues, we have to increase distributions,” he said.

“Here I’m not worried because it’s such a phenomenal brand, fantastic brand, that we can do a lot more with it.

“As president, I will do a lot more with it to significantly increase the revenues and the distributions and the profits.

“That’s something that I’ve done in the International Ski Federation.”

Eliasch, who says he has been inspired on his Olympic journey by sporting feats including the decision by high jumpers Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Barshim to share gold in Tokyo in 2021, said he would like to see Winter Games hosts rotated to increase sustainability.

“We pick, let’s say, eight to 10 venues, so that would be 30 to 40 years, and then we would be basically set,” he said.

“Then the international federations would support the venues by allocating World Cup events, so the local organisers have the funding for upkeep to make sure all the venues are tip-top.”

He is also a proponent of taking the Summer Olympics to previously untapped territory such as Africa, India and the Middle East.

“We are global, and we have to think global, and we have to stage our events globally,” he said.

He insists, though, that taking the Games to such places does not go against his environmental principles.

“We have to think sustainability,” he said. “We have to make sure that new constructions, for instance, have the lowest possible carbon impact.

“We have seen, for instance, Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, where they have done this huge construction with a zero carbon footprint.

“I mean, sustainability and reducing carbon impact is not a magic wand, and suddenly it all disappears.

“So it’s a lot of initiatives, it’s a lot of small things which, when added up, has a big impact.”

Eliasch says the stakes are so high for global sports that the IOC presidential election cannot be a “popularity contest.”

“It has to be the right person for the job,” he said. “It’s essential, because if you do that, pick the wrong person, I mean, it’s like the choice between prosperity and success or failure and becoming irrelevant.

“And we can’t allow that to happen.”

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2025