Filling the Chairs at ANOC

(ATR) Plenty of questions linger in the resignation of Mario Vazquez Rana. For starters, who will lead the 204-nation general assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees next month in Moscow? It may take some time to fullygauge the aftermath of Vazquez Rana’s resignation last week – sudden as it was.

The 80-year-old Vazquez Rana, the most powerful figure in the Olympic Movement in the Americas, severed his ties with ANOC and the IOC in a four-page statement that blasted the ethics, motivation and character of rival colleagues.

With two years remaining in his current term as ANOC president, Vazquez Rana called it quits rather than face an insurgency in Moscow being led by the presidents of the European Olympic Committees and Olympic Council of Asia, Patrick Hickey of Ireland and Sheikh Ahmad Al Sabah of Kuwait.

Ahmad, Hickey and their counterparts --Lassana Palenfo of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and Robin Mitchell of the Oceania National Olympic Committees --were to hold a long-scheduled meeting March 18 in Bangkok to plan for the Moscow assembly. There was no immediate word from participants as to any decisions taken at the meeting.

While the Bangkok meeting carried no formal standing, the participants probably discussed the strategy and options they have to select a new president. ATR is told that under ANOC rules the presidents of the five continental associations are supposed to select the nominee to fill the unexpired term. A full term president would be elected by the ANOC Assembly im 2014.

It is believed that Sheikh Ahmad has the inside track to take over ANOC.

No comment yet from ANOC secretary general Gunilla Lindberg. She presumably would organize the meeting of the leadership needed to declare a president for the Moscow assembly, just three weeksaway.

While Vazquez Rana is surrendering his ANOC presidency, he remains president of the Pan American Sports Organization, the continental association for the Americas. He was elected two weeks ago to a new four-year term. That means he stays among the ANOC leadership as one of the five continental leaders, perhaps becoming a lightning rod for conflict within the group?

The IOC hopes that is not the case. A brief statement from the IOC acknowledging Vazquez Rana’s additional resignation as an IOC member (he would have had to retire at the end of the year regardless) notes he will remain part of the scene in the Olympic Movement.

"The IOC will continue to benefit from the valuable experience of Mr Vázquez Raña through his role as President of Pan American Sports Organisation," it says.

"The IOC hopes that the upcoming ANOC General Assembly in Moscow next month will bring a message of unity and concord for the sake of the athletes who will compete in London this summer," the statement concludes.

So far, nobody has emerged waving olive branches.

But also so far, the internecine warring appears not to have had an effect on athlete and team preparations for the London Olympics. In his collection of resignations last week, Vazquez Rana also tossed aside chairmanship of Olympic Solidarity, the group that distributes IOC revenues to NOCs. But most of the funds for London preps from Olympic Solidarity are already in the pipeline, so a change in leadership may not lead to lurches in the flow of money to NOCs.

It’s now up to Jacques Rogge to pick a new chair for this position, one of the plums in the IOC hierarchy.

More intrigue for the days ahead.

Written by Ed Hula.