You want it too, this Late Night Edition, don't you? Tomorrow afternoon is the day. It's on to the voting tools at The Romanos. Let's quickly go through it together. And to those IOC members who have promised to make calls: I will wait here bravely until well after midnight and early in the morning.
What we know for a fact is that
- Prince Feisal will not become IOC President.
- Nor will Johan Eliasch.
- Morinari Watanabe will struggle with his two colleagues not to come last and hopefully collect a few votes.
- Neither will David Lappartient, although I would place him relatively clearly above the others, without, however, giving any lottery numbers.
There is only the gold medal in this competition.
- I would still give Sebastian Coe third place.
- The decision will be between Juan Antonio Samaranch and Kirsty Coventry. If there is a second and further rounds, then Coventry's chances are likely to decrease.
- It's all about round 1.
In the 131-year history of the IOC, there have only been a few real elections, and they have never gone beyond a second ballot.
The only other times there have been two ballots are in 1925, 2001 and 2013.
- In 2001 in Moscow, Jacques Rogge started out in the lead with 46 votes (Kim Un-Yong 21, Dick Pound 20, Pál Schmitt 11, Anita Defrantz 9). In the second round, Rogge increased his tally to 59 votes, which was the absolute majority. Most of Defrantz's votes (perhaps even all of them) went to Rogge. Pál Schmitt had to give up votes, receiving only 6, Pound 22, Kim 23.
- In 2013 in Buenos Aires, Thomas Bach and his team had actually calculated a confident first-round victory. Even he didn't make it. Bach was ahead of Richard Carrión, 43-23 in the first round and 49-29 in the second. In the first round, CK Wu was eliminated in the tie-break against Ser Miang Ng (6 votes each), Denis Oswald had 7, Sergei Bubka 8. While Ser Miang kept his 6 votes, Oswald and Bubka lost a few votes in the second round – and that's what it's all about. Not only the votes of the last one to vote change, but a few others as well. It's also a bit of a game of poker, especially since the results of the individual rounds are not announced to the electorate.
And you seriously believe you already know the tenth IOC president? The one grinning up there, sure of victory?
Then you're not mistaken.
La noche de las noches.
Falling asleep is not an option.
