It's the most powerful position in world sport.
A position that guarantees the holder the right to rub shoulders with world leaders, to have a seat at the table at the United Nations, to live in luxury and be feted wherever they go.
It's the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) — a position so highly guarded that only nine people have held the role in its 131-year history.
After 12 years in the top job, the term of German lawyer and Olympic gold medal fencer Thomas Bach has come to an end.
This Friday, at a luxury Greek resort, more than a hundred IOC members will vote to elect his successor for an eight-year term.
Bach will stay in the job during a three-month handover to his successor until he says goodbye to his exclusive digs at the five-star Lausanne Palace Hotel overlooking Lake Geneva for one last time in June.
"I think this is probably one of the most critical times for the International Olympic Committee and quite frankly, international sport," Rob Koehler, the Canadian-based director-general of the advocacy group Global Athlete, told ABC Sport.
"The IOC has operated the same way for the last umpteen decades, and they really haven't changed much.
"In the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, that's when the money started flowing into the International Olympic Committee, and they kept all that money and did nothing to protect or support or help athletes, who are the reasons everyone comes to these Games."
The IOC earned revenue of $US7.6 billion for the four years from 2017 to 2021 — the most recent reported four-year period taking in a Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
That's an average annual revenue of more than $3 billion in Australian dollars.
The new president will take on a job that, while ostensibly a voluntary position, still pays a substantial annual income, delivers untold luxury perks like first-class travel and accommodation in five-star hotels, and opens doors around the world through substantial political and diplomatic power.
There are seven candidates for the position, including the Japanese president of the International Gymnastics Federation, Morinari Watanabe, who has a plan to stage every Olympic Games on five different continents simultaneously.
Then there's Prince Faisal Al-Hussein, the younger brother of Jordan's King, Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, the French president of the International Cycling Union, David Lappartient, and the British president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, Johan Eliasch.
But there are three clear frontrunners, according to those in the know: the head of World Athletics and dual Olympic gold medallist, Lord Sebastian Coe, the Zimbabwean gold-medal-winning swimmer Kirsty Coventry and Juan Antonio Samaranch, the Spanish son of the infamous IOC president of the same name.
The candidates have all produced a manifesto and gave a 15-minute spoken pitch to IOC members in January.
Those members include two Australians: The president of the Australian Olympic Committee, Ian Chesterman, and the canoe slalom triple Olympic gold medallist Jessica Fox, who was voted on to the IOC Athlete's Commission last year in Paris.
Fox, Chesterman and the other IOC members will vote in a secret ballot, which is one of the key criticisms of the process for human rights lawyer Nikki Dryden, who swam for Canada at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games.
"The way it's selected is not democratic and it's very elitist and it's very secretive," Dryden said.
"The IOC hasn't given me that confidence that there won't be deals being made and the wrong candidate elected because they're willing to make the right deal."
First-time voter Fox told ABC Sport the Athlete's Commission members meet regularly to discuss matters of importance, such as the IOC presidency.
"A lot of thought goes into it, a lot of meetings go into it and it's going to be really interesting to see how it unfolds," she said.
But on the matter of transparency, she wasn't bucking tradition.
"I think there's been a process that's been in place for a long time and this is my first IOC election, so I'm not really sure what to expect in how it will all go and how it's been previously," she said.
As for how she'll vote: "I don't think I can say that now," she said.
Former champion middle-distance runner Coe has the highest profile of the seven candidates.
He's a two-time Olympic gold medallist in the 1500m who also won silver medals in the 800m at both those Games.
Coe went into politics as a Conservative Member of the British Parliament before heading the organising committee for the London 2012 Olympics.
Since 2015, Coe has run World Athletics.
His manifesto leans heavily on style over substance with a heavy vibe on what he sees as the Olympic ideals: "sporting excellence", "inspiring youth", and placing "athletes at the heart of every decision we make".
"I believe the most important word in our Olympic motto is not faster, higher or stronger — it's together," he wrote, calling for an urgent review of IOC structures.
Coe won some over when World Athletics announced before the Paris Games that all gold medal winners would receive $US50,000.
But that's not good enough, says Koehler, who wants the IOC to engage in a collective bargaining agreement with athletes and universal payment for Olympians.
"I mean, if you're going to support and promote athletes, everyone needs to be compensated when they go to the Olympic Games or the Paralympic Games," Koehler said.
World Players — a global umbrella body of sports associations — released a survey this year of athletes in Australia, the US and France, which found 65 per cent thought the IOC should share their revenue.
According to World Players, the IOC raised a total revenue of $US4.2 billion during the COVID-affected Tokyo Olympics, which equated to $US370,000 for each of the 11,300 competitors at the Games.
However, World Players said athletes received just 0.6 per cent of the revenue they generated via the "Olympic Scholarship" program.
"The next president must ensure the IOC acknowledges athletes' hard work and dedication by paying them their fair share, and giving them an equal say in all matters affecting their careers, wellbeing and livelihoods," the head of World Players, Matthew Graham, said,
"You know some would actually put it akin to a little bit like modern-day slavery what's happening right now," Koehler said.
For his part, Coe has pointed to giving more of the IOC's wealth to athletes, writing that he wanted to "create shared-value models where athletes benefit from the Games' commercial success, recognising them as essential partners".
But he hasn't outlined how that shared-value model would work.
He is unapologetic about demanding a clear delineation between male and female athletes following the controversy over Algerian boxer Imane Khelif during the Paris Games.
Khelif, along with Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting, was subject to intense speculation over her biological sex despite no evidence being put forward that she was anything other than female.
"I'm sorry, gender cannot trump biology," he told Bruce McAvaney on the ABC Sports Daily podcast in January.
"I say that because if you do not protect and promote the integrity of women's sports, you simply do not have women's sport."
Both Samaranch and Coventry are in lock-step with Coe on the issue.
"I am dedicated to the equality of all athletes from all countries, which also means strengthening women's sports by protecting female athletes," Coventry wrote in her manifesto.
Coventry competed in five Olympic Games, winning two golds, four silvers and a bronze in backstroke and medley events. She is Zimbabwe's most successful Olympian.
She has been on the IOC Board since 2013 as a member of the Athletes' Commission, which she chaired from 2018-2021.
In 2018, she was appointed the Minister of Youth, Sport and Recreation in the Government of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who came to power in a military coup the previous year.
She was reappointed in 2023 following the re-election of President Mnangagwa in elections plagued by allegations of fraud which the International Commission of Jurists described as "anything but free and credible."
"Every country has its challenges," Coventry said after the elections.
Coventry plans to continue as a Zimbabwean minister and cabinet member if she wins the IOC presidential vote.
She's seen as the choice of outgoing president Bach, but says he isn't campaigning for her.
Her manifesto is not too dissimilar to Coe's, with its emphasis on the power of sport, prioritising athletes, reaching youth and growing the IOC's reach through new media deals.
Her point of difference is her gender and background — she would become the first female IOC president and also the first from Africa.
Samaranch is the longest-serving IOC member of all seven candidates, with 24 years as a member during which he's served on numerous IOC commissions. He is currently one of four IOC vice-presidents.
Unlike Coe and Coventry, he's not a former Olympic athlete. Rather, he's largely worked in finance, which he cites as a key strength along with his experience.
But his name can't be separated from his infamous father, who served as a Spanish minister under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco and was president of the IOC from 1980 until 2001 — at which point, his son was elected to the IOC.
Under Samaranch, the IOC became a financial behemoth with millions of dollars under its control thanks to lucrative deals with global brands and massive media rights contracts.
IOC members benefited enormously from the luxury perks doled out to them by host country bidders amid numerous allegations of vote-buying.
Samaranch junior says he's proud of his father's achievements.
"My father made a great contribution to the Olympic movement, but every generation has its own challenges," he said at a recent press conference.
As to his manifesto, he's focused on better governance — taking a pointed shot at Bach.
"Thoms Bach yielded extreme amounts of power. It was his way or the highway, and if you didn't, you got sidelined," said Koehler.
Samaranch has written in his manifesto: "The IOC's greatest strength lies not in the narrow perspectives of a select few but in the collective wisdom of its members.
"To fulfil our mission, members must be fully empowered to express their opinions and insights."
He's called for IOC sessions to be held as open discussion forums and debates on all decisions.
All of the candidates have spoken about an athlete-first position, which has been welcomed by Fox.
"I think, as an athlete representative, that's really important to the athlete experience of the Olympic Games and the Olympic movement," Fox told ABC Sport.
"And I think what's really exciting is the way athletes are respected and put forward as key decision-makers and what the Olympics is about."
But Koehler said the candidates' comments about putting athletes first had a hollow ring.
"Instead of talking about it, let's do it," he said.
"Bring athletes to the table and enhance their rights and bring them as an equal partner to grow this movement to make sure it's powerful, strong and athlete-centred.
"Until they actually show it and do it, it becomes words and rhetoric, and sponsors are seeing that."
He cited the decision by three major Japanese corporations — Toyota, Bridgestone and Panasonic — to pull out of their IOC sponsorship after last year's Paris Games.
Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda said the IOC's goals didn't match their own.
"Honestly, I'm not sure they [the IOC] are truly focused on putting people first," Toyoda said.
"The next president is going to have to move in that direction because athlete advocacy and the ability to speak up is not going to slow down," Koehler said.
"It's going to get bigger and bigger, and that new president will find themselves in a very difficult position if they don't move in that direction."
The next president of the IOC will automatically become the most powerful person in world sport.
He or she will also face multiple challenges, most notably an athlete cohort that wants more money and a greater say in their careers, and ever-growing demands for reform.
