The wait was long, often tense, and not always well explained. But it has finally ended with the result that the French sports movement was hoping for: Tony Estanguet, the three-time Olympic canoe-kayak champion, joins the IOC. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected the request of Japanese hammer thrower Koji Murofushi, as it had done a few months earlier that of Taiwanese Mu-Yen Chu, a taekwondo specialist.
Initially elected by their peers, during the ballot organized during the London Games, the two Asian athletes saw their election immediately invalidated by the IOC. They were accused of having campaigned, an approach prohibited by the regulations of the Olympic institution.
Both took the matter to the CAS. In vain. Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry and Tony Estanguet came in 5th place respectivelyrd and 6rd position at the end of the ballot, therefore integrate the IOC into the Athletes' Commission. They join the two other new entrants, Australian rower James Tomkins and Slovak shooter Danka Bartekova.
Like his three other "colleagues", Tony Estanguet will sit on the IOC Athletes' Commission, where he is elected for an eight-year term. This “advisory body”, created by Juan Antonio Samaranch in 1981, is expected to meet twice a year. Its members issue recommendations, participate in certain working groups and in the process of evaluating candidate cities, collaborate with the NOCs and International Federations... They vote for the choice of cities called to host the Games. They are in the place.
A more formal election, scheduled for early July in Lausanne, where the four athletes will have to collect at least half of the votes, will make things more official. Tony Estanguet will then become an ex officio member of the IOC on the 17thrd French history, until the 2020 Games.
The CAS decision obviously suits Tony Estanguet, undoubtedly the most equipped and motivated French athlete for an international career. It also serves the interests of the French sports movement, especially in the hypothesis, certainly still vague, of a future Olympic candidacy. With its arrival in the holy of holies, France has three members of the IOC: Jean-Claude Killy, Guy Drut and Tony Estanguet.
The rejection of Koji Murofushi's appeal is a hard blow for Japan. A few months before the vote of the IOC General Assembly for the host city of the 2020 Summer Games, Tokyo's candidacy would surely have benefited from the presence within the institution of an athlete with the charisma of the thrower hammer, Olympic champion in 2004 and bronze medalist in London. But, paradoxically, it undoubtedly guarantees one more vote for Tokyo. As a Japanese, Koji Murofushi would not have been able to take part in the vote as long as Tokyo was in the running, like all the representatives of the countries involved. Tony Estanguet, for his part, will be able to vote. And it seems obvious that France will have every interest in choosing the Asian file, to the detriment of the Europeans Istanbul and Madrid, in order to preserve the chances of a possible Paris 2024 candidacy.
