A long 12 years in the most powerful position in world sport has undoubtedly taken its toll on the rapidly aging International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge.

But such a fact did not stop the 71-year-old Belgian being in jovial mood at the latest edition of SportAccord International Convention in St Petersburg today

With just over three months before he is due to officially step down as the eighth IOC President at the organisation's 125th Session in Buenos Aires on September 10 – Rogge was laughing and joking with both IOC members and the press.

On more than one occasion he declared that he would happily share his opinion on all matters, even though he claimed that in just three months what he thought would be "completely irrelevant".

It was a packed room that turned out for one of his final press conferences at the helm of the Olympic Movement. Despite a hugely busy and dramatic week on planet Olympics - in which the three bids of baseball-softball, squash and wrestling were shortlisted for inclusion on the 2020 Olympic programme - the key focus of Count Rogge's press conference was the battle to succeed him.


Six candidates - Germany's Thomas Bach, Singapore's Ng Ser Miang, Taiwan's C K Wu, Puerto Rica's Richard Carrión, Switzerland's Denis Oswald and Ukraine's Sergey Bubka - have so far come forward to replace Rogge.

The deadline for the declaration of candidacies is due on June 10 but it is unlikely any others will stand after the two most likely to join the battle - Morocco's Nawal El Moutawakel and Switzerland's René Fasel - both ruled out the prospect when I asked them.

El Moutawakel, the current IOC-vice-president, was rather humorous when I asked her, as she responded: "No I'm definitely not standing – don't you read the news?" Fasel - the President of International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) - was a little less jovial as he explained that he simply wouldn't stand against Swiss compatriot Oswald.

Rogge suggested the pair had told him as much.

"At present, there are six candidates and there could be more before the deadline," Rogge said. "But I don't expect there to be seven or eight candidates so I think it will be these six."

The IOC President revealed that "all six of them will present their manifestos in July to the Session in Lausanne" in what will be their best opportunity to lobby to their colleagues before Buenos Aires.

Predictably, however, Rogge refused to publically back any of the six horses in the race to succeed him. "All of the six candidates would be good IOC Presidents," he said, a faint smile pursing his lips. "They all have very different personalities and different ways of operating but they all love sport and all do good things for sport so they could all do the role well."

Such a statement will have been no surprise to any of the candidates.

Bach - an IOC vice-president and the man considered the front-runner to replace Rogge - told me he expects nothing less than the Belgian to remain firmly neutral throughout.


"I have worked with Jacques Rogge for over 20 years in the IOC - long before he became President," Bach told me on the side-lines in St Petersburg. "He has always been a neutral person and therefore I expect he will remain firmly neutral throughout this race. It is simply his personality."

This isn't really new information. Throughout his dozen years as IOC President - Rogge has been nothing if not a safe pair of hands. It was perhaps something the Olympic Movement knew they required following the hugely prosperous but not always controversy-free 21 year rule of Spain's flamboyant Juan Antonio Samaranch. Rogge - as Bach explains - has safely guided the IOC for the last 12 years with major incident and will hand "a strong Olympic Movement to his successor that is in very good shape."

Back to the Rogge press conference; and the IOC President revealed that his successor will not be given a salary because all six candidates said they wanted to take up the role "voluntarily".

It means that like Rogge - they will only be paid expenses - which still amount to a considerable sum. This principle though, could one-day be revised.


Rogge closed with some advice to the six – which should perhaps be heeded.

After all, the Belgian succeeded Samaranch in 2001 by seeing off four other candidates – who were Canada's Dick Pound, South Korea's Un Yong Kim, Hungary's Pal Schmitt and America's Anita DeFrantz.