Pat Hickey, the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), will not be supported by his own federation, judo, today when the names of candidates for the OCI elections on February 15th are released.
Hickey, who was supported by his sport in the last elections, will not be nominated for any position by the Irish Judo Federation (IJF). He will, however, be nominated by another sport.
The decision by judo not to go with the current president and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member is seen by the group campaigning for change as a significant vote of support for them. Although judo constitutes just one of 27 national federation votes, the move not to support Hickey is viewed as an important swing against the current status quo.
Hickey represented Ireland in the sport a number of times and has been president of the OCI since after the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988. It is believed Hickey sought his sport's nomination, but it is expected judo will now nominate Michael Power, the federation's treasurer.
"It is the case that the Irish Judo Federation will not be nominating Pat Hickey," said Power. "There are no reasons that I want to go into at the moment. The decision was to nominate someone who was involved in the day-today and week-to-week judo activities. This is most definitely not about personalities but what is best for the Irish Judo Federation," he said.
A spokesman for the group involved in initiating change called judo's stance "responsible", adding that "it was significant that his (Pat Hickey's) own organisation will not be nominating him. It sends out a clear signal. Obviously they feel in judo that change is required."
The Athletes Commission, set up before Christmas by the OCI, have also expressed dissatisfaction over their lack of voting rights in the coming election. Yesterday it became clear their nominee, Terry McHugh, will be brought onto the executive board after the February meeting but will not have a voice this time around. The commission, set up specifically to bring the OCI into line with many other nations, where athletes are involved in their Olympic Committee's decision-making process, said their understanding was that they would have a voice in this election.
"We're certainly disappointed," said the commission secretary, Paul Donovan. "I'm unsure now as to how athletes' voices are to be heard if we are denied a voice at the general meeting. Pat Hickey made it clear that this commission was a great step forward, but it is a step backwards. "The impression we got was clear and unambiguous, and that was that voting rights would be given to this commission. It is a negative attitude to athletes once again. We can contribute. We can bring a lot to the table. There is no reason why the athletes should be excluded from this process."
The OCI yesterday said there was never a question that McHugh would vote this time around. They said that he was never going to vote in this election and "was always outside the frame", but welcomed his input in subsequent months and years.
Today will reveal the entire sweep of both sides of the campaign as candidate nominations for positions close at 5.0 p.m. Legal representatives from Arthur Cox will then verify that all are correctly filed before candidates' names are made public.
