"Unholy alliances, dodgy deals and dirty tricks": World Triathlon has the president it deserves
As outlined yesterday, the Spaniard Antonio Arimany was elected today as the third president in the history of the young Olympic Triathlon federation, following an election campaign that was characterised by "collusion, pressure and coercion to manipulate", according to his challengers.
As I am starting to write these lines, the elections for some commissions at the XXXVII World Triathlon Congress in Andalusia are still ongoing. Experienced officials like you, dear readers from the IOC and the leadership of more than 100 Olympic and non-Olympic world federations, will not be surprised to read at this point that none of the four officials who criticised the dubious circumstances of this election in a letter to the IOC leadership and through other channels have today in Torremolinos successfully passed a single ballot.
At this point, many of you Olympic leaders will be grinning and saying: that's just how we do it! Has this stupid journalist still not understood after having covered 47 IOC sessions and several dozens of IF congresses? That's how it works in our system, in the Olympic family. We call it democracy. One country, one vote!
Anyone who breaks ranks will be punished immediately!
The explosive email to IOC president Thomas Bach, sports director Kit McConnell and ethics secretary Pâquerette Girard Zappelli. was signed by the then presidential candidates Michelle Cooper (Australia), Ian Howard (Great Britain) and Tamás Tóth (Hungary). Mads Freund (Denmark), who lost the 2020 presidential election to Marisol Casado, was not among the signatories, but made it clear that he agreed with the content – and was issued an "official public warning" by the so-called Credentials Committee for doing so.
Right after the publication of yesterday's article, immediately before the start of the election congress, Michelle Cooper withdrew her candidacy for the presidency. It may be that she had chickened out at the last moment and therefore preferred to concentrate on her candidacy for vice president, which had also been submitted.
However, it didn't help.
A well-oiled system forgives nothing.
