Nuzman (pictured above), who is also the President of Rio 2016, is widely respected in the Olympic Movement and has been a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2000.

The 70-year-old former volleyball player, who was part of the first Brazilian male volleyball team at the Tokyo 1964 Summer Olympics, is a lawyer by profession and has served as COB President since 1995.

His greatest moment came when he spearheaded the Rio 2016 bid for the Olympics and Paralympics, which claimed victory at the IOC Session in Copenhagen in 2009.

He has been re-elected to the role unopposed for the past 16 years without facing a challenger but Maleson submitted his bid on the April 30 deadline, claiming that positive change within the COB is long overdue and that he is not alone in his desire for reform.

"The balance of power needs to be restored to a more harmonious level," said Maleson, who was Brazil's first bobsled pilot to compete at the Winter Olympics when he appeared at the Salt Lake City 2002 Games.

"One example of unbalance is that Nuzman, in addition to being President of the COB, is also President of the Rio 2016 Organising Committee.

"This is an obvious conflict of interest."

Maleson is no lightweight candidate, having founded the Brazilian Ice Sports Federation in 1996.

His work as a sports administrator has also seen him serve on the International Luge Federation (FIL) Development Committee and as a member of the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation's (FIBT) Court of Arbitration.

He was elected as vice-president of communications at FIBT in 2010.


Maleson (pictured above) was the first Brazilian athlete to carry the Olympic Torch during the 2002 Salt Lake City Torch Relay and a year later, he was voted one of the top ten most influential sports figures in Brazil.

Among other changes, Maleson says he would like to limit the terms of the COB President so that there is a maximum of two four-year terms.

He would also like to see clear criteria regarding the distribution of financial resources for the federations.

"As it stand now, 70 per cent of the resources are given to maybe six out of 30 federations," said Maleson,

"There are no criteria at all, instead the resources are used as political currency."

Maleson has also said that the COB needs transparency regarding approval of accounts and budget.

"With Rio 2016 on the horizon, Brazil has a chance to shine," he said,

"The old ways will no longer function in the new global reality and if Brazil wants to join the leadership of the world and be worthy of hosting an Olympics, we urgently need a new platform of leadership within the COB."

According to the COB, elections "must occur in the last quarter of 2012, as foreseen in the Statute of the COB".

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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