Taiwan’s Wu confirms IOC bid
Taiwanese boxing chief becomes second Asian candidate to run for presidency of International Olympic Committee.
C. K. Wu of Taiwan has confirmed he’s running for president of the International Olympic Committee, becoming the fourth candidate and the second from Asia bidding to replace Jacques Rogge.
Wu, a 66-year-old architect who has been International Amateur Boxing Association president since 2006, told a packed news conference in Taipei on Thursday that he is declaring his candidacy to “positively impact society.”
“The thought and concept to develop the IOC and Olympic movement … is the core principle of my candidature,” he said.
“The IOC and the Olympic Games have more power to positively impact society than any other organisation and project in the world.”
September elections
Wu joins IOC vice-presidents Thomas Bach of Germany and Ng Ser Miang of Singapore, and Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico as declared candidates in the race to replace Rogge, a Belgian orthopaedic surgeon who will step down in September after 12 years at the IOC helm.
Sergei Bubka of Ukraine is also expected to declare as a candidate.
Wu declined to speculate during the news conference on his chances for election, except to say that he is popular among IOC members.
“I will do my best to convince the members that I am a capable candidate,” he said.
Wu said that if his candidacy succeeded, he would make a major effort to promote education as a way to combat the scourges of doping, gambling, match-fixing and violence in sports.
“I strongly urge that we concentrate more on education than ever before,” he said.
“I truly believe that there is no better solution to fighting against these problems than providing young people with education early on.”
Wu, an IOC member since 1988, was elected to the IOC’s policy-making executive board last year and was a member of the IOC coordination commissions for the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, and 2008 Beijing Olympics. He currently sits on the coordination panel for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The Associated Press had earlier reported that Wu notified Rogge last Friday that he will be a candidate to succeed him as head of the IOC in the election on September 10 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Last month, Wu played host to numerous IOC members in Tianjin, China, for the opening of a museum he designed to honour the late IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.
Earlier this week, AIBA’s executive committee recommended that Wu run for IOC president.
Wu’s native Taiwan competes in the Olympics under the name Chinese Taipei, to distinguish it from mainland China, now a mainstay of the Olympic movement. Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, and while both participated in the 1952 Summer Games in Helsinki, Finland, China subsequently withdrew to protest Taiwan’s inclusion in the Olympics.
China returned to the Winter Games in 1980 and the Summer Games four years later after the IOC formally adopted the Chinese Taipei moniker to describe Taiwan.