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Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, March nineteen, twenty twenty five. Israel is pounding

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Speaker 1: Gaza again. Hundreds have reportedly died in air strikes, which

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Speaker 1: Israel says are aimed at eliminating Hamas command structures and

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Speaker 1: enforcing the return of hostages. You can read all our

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Speaker 1: reporting and analysis of the latest twist in that conflict

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Speaker 1: right now at the Australian dot com dot au. The

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Speaker 1: International Olympic Committee is meeting to elect a new president

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Speaker 1: with a mandate to overhaul the Games. The candidates are

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Speaker 1: united on one issue, trans women will be banned from

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Speaker 1: female sporting categories. Today, our europe correspondent, Jacqueline Magne, who's

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Speaker 1: covered fifteen Olympic Games, sizes up the candidates for world

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Speaker 1: sports most powerful role and tells us why they're on

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Speaker 1: a unity ticket about women's sport. That's today's episode. Jacqueline

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Speaker 1: Magnet is the Australian's Europe correspondent, and she's simultaneously covering

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Speaker 1: the jostling for two incredibly important global positions, the papacy

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Speaker 1: and the presidency of the IOC. Jack do you ever

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Speaker 1: get these two things muddled up in your head and

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Speaker 1: dream about Sebastian Cove becoming pope.

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Speaker 2: Well maybe Sebastian co might think that, but no, but

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Speaker 2: the two organizations have very very similar structures in the

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Speaker 2: way that they conduct their elections. So I suppose we've

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Speaker 2: got a conclave happening this week in Greece on this

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Speaker 2: resort Costa Navarino, which is usually a lovely summer resort.

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Speaker 2: There's helipads everywhere, but it's empty at the moment except

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Speaker 2: for one hundred and eight IOC members that have flown in,

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Speaker 2: but also their families and the entourages in world sport.

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Speaker 2: They're all converging on this west coast of Greece. It's

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Speaker 2: about a four and a half hour drive from Athens,

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Speaker 2: and they're electing the new president to take over from

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Speaker 2: Thomas Bark who's helmed the organization for twelve years now,

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Speaker 2: and he steps down in June, but his success will

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Speaker 2: be elected on Thursday evening.

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Speaker 1: Last time, most of our listeners paid attention to the

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Speaker 1: International Olympic Committee members were being disgraced and kicked off

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Speaker 1: the committee for accepting bribes all sorts of acts of

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Speaker 1: corruption that was a couple of decades ago, around the

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Speaker 1: time of the Sydney Olympics, less.

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Speaker 3: Than one hundred days.

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Speaker 4: The Olympic movement has faced its most serious challenge in

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Speaker 4: the past one hundred years by a bribery scheme that

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Speaker 4: had far reaching consequences for the International Olympic Committee at

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Speaker 4: Salt Lake City won the bid on its merits, not

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Speaker 4: because of this program.

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Speaker 5: We are aware that there are agents, and we are

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Speaker 5: aware of the identities of at least some of them.

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Speaker 3: What they've done or not done, we don't know yet.

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Speaker 2: Apparently I said too much.

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Speaker 1: What is this organization? Now? Has it cleaned up its act?

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Speaker 4: Well?

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Speaker 2: It has because it had a very good president in

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Speaker 2: Jacques Rogge, who implemented new rules that members couldn't go

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Speaker 2: and to the bid cities anymore. And then we've had

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Speaker 2: Thomas Bark for the last twelve years and he's really

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Speaker 2: run it as a personal fifdom, you know, very autocratic.

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Speaker 2: His rule is the way to go. If people don't

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Speaker 2: follow him or are not happy with what he suggests,

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Speaker 2: people are very much shunned and pushed to the outer

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Speaker 2: So he's created an interesting organization that's very closeted and

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Speaker 2: the power is held within the executive and just a

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Speaker 2: handful of IOC members, and so we've got this election.

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Speaker 2: At the moment, there's seven candidates and nearly all of

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Speaker 2: them are saying they want to open up the Olympic movement.

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Speaker 2: They want to have allow members to have more of

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Speaker 2: a say. Some of them are even suggesting that they

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Speaker 2: may go back to the time of having members able

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Speaker 2: to visit bid cities and have more of an input

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Speaker 2: into that decision because for the last decade they've felt

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Speaker 2: very much on the outer.

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Speaker 1: What are the other big issues on the table?

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Speaker 2: Jack, Well, some of the big issues are what sports

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Speaker 2: are going to be on the Olympic program and that

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Speaker 2: will impact on Brisbane. Twenty thirty two.

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Speaker 4: The International Olympic Committee as the honor to announce that

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Speaker 4: the Games of the thirty fifth Olympiad I award it

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Speaker 4: to Brisbane, Australia.

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Speaker 2: Those will be made in the next year or so.

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Speaker 2: We've seen just this week how boxing will be on

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Speaker 2: the LA program. So boxing is an Olympic sport but

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Speaker 2: was not on the LA program because of concerns about

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Speaker 2: which organization will run World boxing. And so during the

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Speaker 2: Paris Olympic Games, the IOC ran it and we had

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Speaker 2: that huge controversy where we had two athletes who have

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Speaker 2: failed previous six tests that were conducted by the International

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Speaker 2: Boxing Association. They were allowed to compete as females and

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Speaker 2: they won gold medals.

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Speaker 3: The International Olympic Committee is playing defense. A day after

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Speaker 3: an Algerian boxer deemed a biological male faced off against

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Speaker 3: an Italian opponent who has hit so hard she stopped

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Speaker 3: the fight.

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Speaker 1: Italian Angela Karini could take no more, feeling unfairly overpowered

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Speaker 1: by Iman Khalif.

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Speaker 2: But for LA, the IOC doesn't want to conduct the

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Speaker 2: boxing competition themselves. They want an international federation to conduct it,

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Speaker 2: and so a rival boxing organization, World Boxing, has now

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Speaker 2: been given the approval to host and control boxing for

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Speaker 2: the Olympic Committee. And so it means that this rival

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Speaker 2: boxing organization will now take over and run the competition.

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Speaker 1: Is breaking going to be back for the next It's

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Speaker 1: a good credit.

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Speaker 2: No, I certainly don't think it does not have very

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Speaker 2: big support amongst the IOC members at the moment. There's

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Speaker 2: other sports, particularly cricket. I think they really want cricket

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Speaker 2: to be a permanent sport on the Olympic program. But

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Speaker 2: again it will depend on who the president is and

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Speaker 2: what their particular quirks and favorites are. And one of

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Speaker 2: the candidates is Juan Antonio Samarach who has been very

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Speaker 2: closely associated with modern pentathlon for about two decades. And

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Speaker 2: if you recall the name Juan Antonio Sabarange where John

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Speaker 2: saw everybody does, that's his father. So Samaranch Senior headed

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Speaker 2: up the organization as president for twenty one years, including

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Speaker 2: awarding the Games to Sydney, and then was the president

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Speaker 2: during the time of the Sydney Olympics.

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Speaker 4: You have presented to the world the best Olympic Games ever.

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Speaker 2: Well it's his son now who is standing to be

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Speaker 2: president again and following his father's footsteps.

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Speaker 1: Another issue that they're going to have to look at

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Speaker 1: across the whole Olympic program is the question of transgender

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Speaker 1: athletes competing at the Games. Until now, that's really been

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Speaker 1: left to individual sporting federations to work out some rules

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Speaker 1: for themselves. Of course, Donald Trump has said that no

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Speaker 1: transgender athletes will be able to compete for the United States.

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Speaker 1: So is this something that whoever the IOC president is

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Speaker 1: going to have to resolve across the board.

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Speaker 2: This is such a hot topic and all of the

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Speaker 2: IOC candidates have said that they will make the female

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Speaker 2: competition for biological females only. Now, this was a stance

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Speaker 2: that Sebastian Coe was very public about several years ago,

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Speaker 2: and in his position as President of World Athletics, he

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Speaker 2: was one of the first sports to have very clear

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Speaker 2: rules about the female category being for biological females. His

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Speaker 2: camp is a little bit miffed really that all the

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Speaker 2: other IOC candidates have now fallen in behind him and

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Speaker 2: have adopted very similar policies because they've bred the room,

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Speaker 2: They've gone and spoken to the members. Everybody has said,

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Speaker 2: this issue is ridiculous. Why are we involved in this.

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Speaker 2: We are not the United Nations. We are running sport

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Speaker 2: and we have to protect sport for half of our constituency.

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Speaker 2: And so they've all swung in behind and whoever will

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Speaker 2: be president next week will be implementing a kind of

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Speaker 2: blanket directive about this and directing all the international sports

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Speaker 2: giving them a clear and single policy in which to implement,

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Speaker 2: so that all sport across the board will have a

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Speaker 2: very similar policy where female sport will be for biological females.

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Speaker 1: Coming up. One of the candidates wants to rename the Games.

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Speaker 1: And who else is in the running to run the IOC.

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Speaker 1: That's after the break.

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Speaker 5: Seven candidates are vying to become the tenth President of

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Speaker 5: the International Olympics Committee at the one hundred and forty

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Speaker 5: third IOC session in Greece. They will be running to

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Speaker 5: succeed seventy one year old German Thomas Buck, who has

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Speaker 5: been at the helm of the IOC since October twenty thirteen.

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Speaker 1: Let's have look at some of the other front runners.

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Speaker 3: World record another gold medal.

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Speaker 1: Kirsty Coventry future Kirsty Coventry is a zimbabewin swimmer, very famous,

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Speaker 1: one lot of medals. She then became a politician in

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Speaker 1: Zimbabwe and she's been active in the IOC for a

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Speaker 1: number of years. What sort of candidate is she.

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Speaker 2: Well, we know Kirsty quite well because she is the

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Speaker 2: IOC's coordination chair for the Brisbane Olympics. So she's female,

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Speaker 2: she's from Africa, and she's also a young mother. She

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Speaker 2: has a four month old baby as well as a

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Speaker 2: five year old. So Thomas Bark is very much pushing

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Speaker 2: her candidate to the point where he's ringing other IOC

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Speaker 2: members convincing them to try and swing behind Kirsty Coventry.

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Speaker 2: So more of the same is what her presidency would

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Speaker 2: be like. But then that holds her distinctly different to

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Speaker 2: all the other candidates. So it's whether the IOC membership

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Speaker 2: wants what's been happening in the past decade or so

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Speaker 2: to continue on or not.

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Speaker 1: There's a Jordanian prince and Japanese candidate. Tell us about

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Speaker 1: some of the others.

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Speaker 2: Prince Vazo from Jordan, the royal family. He's very charming,

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Speaker 2: very well liked, but he's considered very much a lightweight

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Speaker 2: in the IOC. We've also got Mariani Wattanabi, who is

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Speaker 2: the Japanese head of the International Gymnastics Federation, and he's

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Speaker 2: actually thrown a lot of color into this election because

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Speaker 2: he's got some really wild ideas. He wants the Olympics

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Speaker 2: held on all five continents all at once, and suggesting

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Speaker 2: to change the name of the Olympics. He wants to

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Speaker 2: call the Olympics the World Games, which is not that

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Speaker 2: radical in terms of a name, but why are you

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Speaker 2: going to get rid of your prize branding that's been

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Speaker 2: built up over one hundred years and that's what all

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Speaker 2: the sponsors are paying for that to be associated with

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Speaker 2: the Olympics. So I don't think that one's going to fly.

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Speaker 2: There's also Lord Sebastian Coe. Now he's got the best

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Speaker 2: CV of all because he's world record holder, multiple Olympic champion.

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Speaker 3: It's Sebastian Path expending his lead and Sebastian past Sebastian

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Speaker 3: cow wins the gold matter.

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Speaker 2: He headed up the London twenty twelve bid and then

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Speaker 2: also the Olympic Games there and Chair of World Athletics

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Speaker 2: and they've got two hundred members around the world, all

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Speaker 2: the countries, so he's been able to go a network

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Speaker 2: with all of these voting members for some time now,

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Speaker 2: and I think he's the candidate with the momentum at

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Speaker 2: the moment. I think a month ago, I would have

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Speaker 2: said Juan Antonio Samarance Junior was the favorite because he

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Speaker 2: is very well known, very charming, very friendly, and everybody

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Speaker 2: wants to tell him that they're voting for him. But

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Speaker 2: I think that Sebastian Coe in the last month has

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Speaker 2: really worked hard. Look, it's so hard to tell because

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Speaker 2: it's a secret ballot and all the members say, oh,

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Speaker 2: you can have my vote, but they never tell you

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Speaker 2: in which round they're going to vote for you, so

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Speaker 2: you know it is minde in secrecy and it's just

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Speaker 2: fascinating to see if there's a block of votes then

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Speaker 2: swinging behind another candidate.

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Speaker 1: Jacqueline Magnet is The Australian's europe correspondent. You can follow

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Speaker 1: her coverage of the IOC election live on Thursday and

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Speaker 1: Friday at the Australian dot com dot au