Greece “systematically” wants to host IOC presidential elections

“My dream is to organize this election in ancient Olympia, to remind everyone where the Games began, 2,800 years ago,” explained Spyros Capralos. “Every eight or twelve years, organizing the election of the IOC president in ancient Olympia is something feasible and would be very positive for the entire Olympic movement,” he said.

The mandate of the IOC President lasts eight years, and is renewable once for four years. Greece is expected to host the next IOC presidential election in March 2025, when the term of current president, German Thomas Bach, ends. A former gold medalist in fencing at the Montreal Games in 1976, Mr. Bach was elected in Buenos Aires in 2013.

According to tradition, Olympia will also host, on April 16, the flame lighting ceremony for the Paris 2024 Games (July 26-August 11). Ten days later, during the ceremony to hand over the flame to the Parisian organizers, Nana Mouskouri, one of the most famous Greek singers, also very linked to France, will be invited to perform, announced Mr. Capralos.

“We hope that Nana Mouskouri can come to sing the national anthems, it would be a very special moment, because she is a very respected and well-known woman in France and Greece, but also throughout the world,” he said. he adds. Nana Mouskouri, who has sold more than 350 million albums worldwide, will celebrate her 90th birthday in October.