Probably the only less-transparent worldwide organization than the International Olympics Committee is the Vatican. And the manner in which both select new leaders is equally opaque. In fact, the only features the Vatican has over the IOC is that it does not announce how many votes each candidate received, and, well, supposedly those votes are acts of God.
So imagine the world’s surprise when, immediately after the International Olympics Committee elected Thomas Bach their new president yesterday, he received a telephone call from the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
“For the next five months Bach will have to manage the controversy surrounding the anti-gay measures that Putin signed into law,” USA Today reports:
Bach had just finished answering a question about that topic when Sochi Organizing Committee president Dmitry Chernyshenko interrupted and handed Bach the phone.
The man who holds the most powerful job in international sports and the man who holds the most powerful job in Russia exchanged pleasantries before Bach returned to answer more questions from reporters.
“Was that Mr. Putin?” he was asked.
“Yes, but we did not discuss the law,” he said with a laugh.
No one reported if it was a nervous laugh, but it should have been.
“New Olympics chief Thomas Bach is Putin’s friend,” reads a report at Gay Star News, which claims Bach “considers Russian president Vladimir Putin as a close friend.”
And an article in The Australian, which notes, “Thomas Bach counts Vladimir Putin among his allies,” reveals “Bach secured 49 votes” of the 93 total, adding:
Al-Sabah, known among the Olympic Movement as the Sheikh, controls about $400 million of IOC distribution money through his presidency of the association of national Olympic committees and has publicly admitted to working behind the scenes for a decade to get his man in the top seat.
German television had made claims of conflicts of interest against Bach and Al-Sabah.
Certainly Al-Sabah scored the trifecta at this session, securing all three of his preferred options: Tokyo to host 2020 Olympics, the reinstatement of wrestling on the Olympic program ahead of softball-baseball and squash and Bach as president.
Yet in the final days and hours of glad-handing, smiling and secret deal-making, Bach emerged with a most convincing mandate.
Meanwhile, “Bach and the IOC have been told by the Russians there would be no discrimination against anyone in Sochi, and that Russia would abide by the Olympic Charter,” Sports Illustrated writes:
“We have the assurances of the highest authorities in Russia that we trust,” Bach said.
Which means nothing. The Russians have made clear they believe Putin’s anti-gay laws aren’t discriminatory because they apply to all people. Which is like saying bans on same-sex marriage aren’t discriminatory because gay men can still marry women, and lesbians can still marry men.
Regardless, before, during, and after the 2014 Winter Olympics, Russia’s LGBT citizenry will still be targeted for hate, violence, and, if their latest anti-gay bill becomes law, the state-sponsored kidnapping of children from LGBT families.
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Image by Olaf Kosinsky via Wikimedia