(ATR) Around the Rings has learned that the IOC wants to speak with candidates being considered to lead the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
It is believed there is but one candidate, Yang Ho Cho, the businessman who led the successful bid campaign.
Cho has agreed to succeed Jin Sun Kim, who resigned last week saying new leadership was needed.
ATR is told that Cho is expected to be approved as president of the organizing committee at its general assembly on Thursday.
But the IOC, in a statement to ATR, says it wants to have the chance to speak Cho before giving consent to bring him on board as president of PyeongChang 2018.
"We understand that there is currently a formal process going on to elect the next president of the PyeongChang 2018 organizing committee, which should be finalized at an Extraordinary General Assembly on 31 July," an IOC spokesperson
told ATR.
"The IOC will also need to discuss directly with any candidate to better understand how they plan to operate in their new role as president before giving its opinion to POCOG."
The IOC appears keen to ensure Cho is committed to guiding preparations forward following a rocky month of comings and goings at PyeongChang 2018.
Just last week the Hanjin Group chairman said he didn’t want the job.
With tangible leadership concern for Pyeongchang, the IOC clearly wants reassurances Cho will stick around to maintain the momentum of Olympic preparations.
There were rumors that internal conflict forced POCOG’s secretary general DongHoo Moon to quit ahead of the IOC Coordination Commission visit a few weeks ago.
Although IOC co-com chief Gunilla Lindberg told ATR two weeks ago that Moon quit for health reasons, the departure of the top two senior officials at PyeongChang 2018 is a headache for the IOC less than four years to the Games.
An aspiring IOC member, Cho has some familiarity with how the IOC works following his experience in leading the 2018 bid. The IOC know something of his style from his two years in charge of the campaign.
Cho’s already established links with IOC officials can only help PyeongChang’s push to the line. His wealth of experience as a sports administrator, in Korean table tennis and as vice president of the Korean Olympic Committee, may also deliver the strong leadership of PyeongChang 2018 that the IOC craves.
Reported by Mark Bisson.
Home page photo: IOC/Flickr
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