By james art 
Graham Dunbar Associated Press
Lausanne, Switzerland – behind the closed doors, seven candidates hoping to lead the International Olympic Committee, made key terrains on Thursday to about 100 voters of perhaps the most uncomfortable and opaque elections in world sports.
The only event of the serata campaign before the poll on March 20 in Greece has allowed each candidate to speak for 15 minutes only to members of the IOC, which include members of the royal family and former leaders of government officials plus sports officers and former athletes.
The speeches were not broadcast and the audience could not take phones or devices in the room. Neither the voters could ask questions to their seven colleagues who compete for perhaps the most influential job in sports, and one that has increasingly played a role in real -world politics.
This is a bizarre process set by the IOC to decide its first contested 2013 presidential election and to find a heir to Thomas Bach, who has reached the limit of 12 years of service.
“If I were president, I think I would be a little more flexible,” said Prince Faisal Al Hussein of Jordan during a 10-minute press conference that every candidate was allowed at the IOC headquarters. “The world has the right to know who is running and what they are advocating.”
Candidates also include two Olympic gold medalists, Sebastian Cow and Kurt Coventry and the son of former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, Jr.
Four are chairmen of Olympic sports bodies: Johan Elias of Ski, David Lapartent from Cycling and Molinari Vatanabe of gymnastics. Coe also runs World Athletics, organizes the London Olympics in 2012 and is widely regarded as the most skilled candidate.
Three are members of the Bach-Chaired Executive Board: Samaranc, Prince Feisal and Coventry, the Minister of Sport of Zimbabwe, who will be the first woman to run the Olympic Movement in her 130-year history. It is considered a preferred choice of Bach.
“I think he is very fair to all of us,” Coventry said when he asked him about the notion that she was preferred by the meeting president. This week she had said “I don’t feel that he (Bach) is campaigning for me.”
Bach probably does not use his right to vote with the eclectic combination of invitations to become members of the IOC, who are currently number 110. They also include diplomats, industrialists and won with an Oscar actress Michel Yeo.
Few details were known about the mood of the IOC members. “I felt very well in the room,” Samaranch said, adding that it was an “impossible question” to know how his time on stage compared to others.
The winner on March 20 will officially take office in June after a three -month transitional period with Bach, a German lawyer and a gold medalist at the 1976 Olympics in fencing, whose presidential style is widely regarded as micro -control.
“The appetite for change is stronger than I thought it would probably be,” Cow said this week. He and Samaranch have promised to return roles to make membership to members, including more choices for the election of Olympic host cities.
The next IOC president will have a diplomatic role working with US President Donald Trump’s administration before the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The main challenges are yet to include the impact of climate change on the world sports calendar, gender problems in sports, when and how to return Russia entirely to the Olympic Games and the signing of a new broadcast transaction in the United States. The deal of the longtime NBC partner has expired after the Brisbane Olympics in 2032 and is the basis of the Olympic revenue, which is $ 7.6 billion in the Olympic cycle 2021-24.
The IOC is looking to host the Olympics in 2036, such as India and Qatar in the mixture, which may require the move of summer games from the established place to July-August.
Perhaps the most attractive new proposal is from Vatanabe to make future summer games a movable, 24-hour production with 10 sports in each of five countries, one of each continent.
“In my opinion, many people want a revolution,” said the Japanese candidate, who is a probable outsider in the competition, “They are waiting for innovation.”
Other ideas for world athletes include Coe’s desire to expand the payment of traces of cash prizes for Olympic medalists and Samaranch, offering strict rules for broadcast rights that would allow athletes to use video from their own social media performances.