Johan Eliasch says he was as surprised as anyone that he threw his hat into the ring to succeed Thomas Bach as International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, but said that he is the right person to meet the disparate challenges that lie ahead, especially the pivotal issue of the environment.
Eliasch is a highly successful businessman and renowned environmentalist — making him a pertinent candidate in light of the wildfires in 2028 Games host city Los Angeles — and has been president of the International Ski Federation since 2021.
He hopes such a resume would dazzle his electorate, the IOC members, when they choose one of the seven candidates to be Bach’s successor in March, even if he has only been a member since July last year.
Photo: AFP
Eliasch might lack the profile of athletics icon Sebastian Coe and the inside knowledge of the IOC that Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr possesses after two decades as a member, but he believes he has the skills required to run the most powerful body in sport.
“I have been an adviser to governments on protecting the environment and taking action on climate change,” he said in an interview this month. “I have been very involved in technology, I have run a major company. I run the biggest winter sports federation, which provides 55 percent of all events in the Winter Games. The bottom line is if they are looking for somebody with a lot of experience and expertise I am your man.”
Eliasch, who refers to himself as Anglo-Swedish as he has spent more time in the UK than his country of birth, said the new president arrives at a crucial moment.
“We are at a crossroads where expectations are very high and if you get things wrong it will not be a soft landing, it will be a crash landing,” he said. “So it is important to have the right person steering us into the future and there are going to be some very big decisions coming up in sport.”
On key issues such as the environment and sustainability he has a proven track record — for example, in 2006 he founded Cool Earth, a charity dedicated to rainforest conservation.
“I was always passionate about nature,” he said. “There is an existential threat, though, centering round food, water and climate security. If you cut down rainforests in one part of the world rain falls in different places, then agricultural land becomes non-productive and people start moving round, which provokes conflicts.”
The art-loving Eliasch, a keen sportsman himself who has tried his hand at skiing, curling, tennis, golf and motor sports, said the Los Angeles fires were a taste of what is to come.
“We can’t afford to take our eye off the ball for even just a second, as far as climate change is concerned,” he said. “The LA fires — the destruction and heartbreak they’ve caused, and how close they’ve come to LA28 venues — it shows us the urgency, and how vigilant and prepared and well-resourced we must be to avoid, manage and contain these extreme weather events because the sad fact is we’re going to see more of them in the future, not less.”
On the thorny issue of Russia and the Olympics, he admires the work done by Bach.
Russia as a nation state has been out in the sporting cold since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Eliasch, though, believes it was right to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete as neutral athletes at the Paris Olympics last year.
“This goes to the very core of the Olympic movement, our ability to unite,” he said.
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