World Athletics chief Lord Coe says he could be open to the potential of transferring some indoor sports activities from the summer time Olympics to the winter Video games if he turns into the brand new president of the Worldwide Olympic Committee.
Britain’s two-time Olympic 1500m champion printed his manifesto, exterior on Thursday morning alongside these of the opposite six candidates within the working to succeed Thomas Bach subsequent yr.
“Innovation is vital, we now have to be open to new concepts,” he informed BBC Sport.
Coe has vowed to shake up the IOC, claiming “an excessive amount of energy is within the fingers of too few folks”.
Describing the election as “the dance I simply could not sit out”, Coe mentioned: “The query I ask myself as a member is – ‘what enter do I and different members have?’
“And the truth of it’s, there is not sufficient. I am unsure we’re profiting from the extraordinary expertise that sits alongside me. The IOC is just not a damaged organisation however it may be so a lot better and it wants change.”
In his proposals, Coe reinforces earlier pledges to spice up youth sport, introduce “clear, science-based insurance policies” to shield the feminine class amid persevering with debate in sport over gender eligibility guidelines, and to hearken to athletes.
He additionally says that: “To maintain the Video games we should develop – not simply financially but in addition in attain and relevance. Business companions and broadcasters need modernisation.”
Talking on the Olympic Park in Stratford, Coe – who chaired the organising committee of London 2012 – added: “Local weather change goes to basically make us have to consider the worldwide calendar, the place we take our occasions and the instances of the yr that we take our occasions.
“And a few folks have even advised that we’d need to have a look at the steadiness between the winter and summer time Video games.
“You’ve gotten venues the place some sports activities are indoors. You may in idea take them into one other time of the yr, perhaps a winter Video games.
“So these are all of the issues that I might encourage debate to happen on, as a result of solely when we now have that debate can we discard the issues that won’t work.
“Solely in collaboration with the winter sports activities and all these organisations on the market. We have now the Affiliation of Nationwide Olympic Committees. We have now the summer time federations which are represented, and a few of that needs to be a collaborative strategy. However I believe we should always all the time be open to new and recent pondering.”
Final yr the IOC mentioned analysis confirmed solely 10 international locations will have the ability to host snow sports activities by 2040 due to the influence of local weather change, and accepted “a must adapt the Olympic Winter Video games”.
There are at present 4 indoor sports activities on the Winter Olympics: velocity skating, determine skating, curling, and ice hockey.
In a controversial transfer, World Athletics launched prize cash for gold medallists at Paris 2024 beneath Coe’s management.
“Most of the issues I’ve completed at World Athletics have sparked a debate,” he mentioned.
“That is not one thing I shrink back from. In a world that modifications each 5 minutes, we now have to be very open to evaluation that does not all the time match comfortably with how we see the world. And we should always embrace that.”