Johan Eliasch - the man aiming to make women’s sport at the Olympics a level playing field

IOC presidential hopeful is running on a manifesto of ‘fairness and clarity’ and hopes to take the Games to new territories

President of the International Ski Federation Johan Eliasch speaks during the opening ceremony of the Saalbach 2025 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Hinterglemm, Austria. AFP

In March, members of the International Olympic Committee will vote on who should head the organisation responsible for running both the Summer and Winter Games, replacing long-term incumbent Thomas Bach.

Seven candidates are vying for the position – arguably the most powerful in world sport – having presented their manifestos to the IOC membership in January.

One of those is Johan Eliasch, a 63-year-old Sweden-born businessman, investor and philanthropist. Eliasch was chief executive of sporting goods company Head from 1995 to 2021 and in 2006, he co-founded Cool Earth, a charity dedicated to rainforest conservation.

Eliasch believes in the power of sport to unite people. Given the conflicts in Ukraine, as well as the Israel-Gaza war, and fallout still being felt from the Paris Olympics over issues of biological sex and gender Eliasch acknowledges there is work to be done.

One of the key tenets Eliasch noted in his manifesto is that "the integrity of women's sport must be protected whatever the cultural pressures. In the face of these pressures, fairness and clarity can be achieved if we come back to biological facts."

The issue of gender centres primarily around the controversy that courted boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting during last year's Games in Paris.

Both were registered as female at birth but were excluded from the International Boxing Association's 2023 World Championships after claims they failed gender eligibility tests. The IOC cleared them to fight and both went on to win gold medals in Paris.

Algerian Olympic medallist Imane Khelif given rapturous welcome home

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The IBA had lost its Olympic recognition due to governance issues, paving the way for the IOC to take control of boxing, allowing Khelif and Lin to compete as females.

At present, testosterone levels – not XY chromosomes, which is the pattern typically seen in men – are the key criterion of eligibility in Olympic events where the sport's governing body has framed and approved rules, such as track and field.

That's because some women, assigned female at birth and identifying as women, have conditions called differences of sex development, or DSD, that involve an XY chromosome pattern or natural testosterone higher than the typical female range. Some sports officials say that gives them an unfair advantage over other women in sports, but the science is inconclusive.

Testosterone is a natural hormone that increases the mass and strength of bone and muscle after puberty. The normal adult male range rises to multiple times higher than for females, up to about 30 nanomoles per litre of blood compared with less than 2 nmol/L for women.

In 2019, at a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing, track and field’s governing body argued athletes with DSD conditions were “biologically male”.

The criteria for women's boxing at Paris, overseen by the IOC, is that her passport states that she is female, the same protocol that was used for the 2016 Rio Games.

“If you're formed with the SRY [Sex-determining region Y protein] gene it means you're not a woman," Eliasch tells The National during a Zoom call. "The competition will not be at a level playing field. And therefore, it's very important that we are science based and fact based in determining that.

“Under my leadership, I would want to bring clarity to this issue. And what has to drive that is that we have a level playing field, where women's sport is ring fenced.”

Gold medallist Imane Khelif poses on the podium. AFP

From the left: Silver medallist China's Yang Liu, gold medallist Algeria's Imane Khelif and bronze medallists Thailand's Janjaem Suwannapheng and Taiwan's Chen Nien. AFP

Gold medallist Imane Khelif poses on the podium during the medal ceremony. AFP

Algeria's Imane Khelif, left, fights China's Yang Liu. AP

Algeria's Imane Khelif, right, fights China's Yang Liu. AP

Algeria's Imane Khelif after beating China's Yang Liu. AFP

Algerian fans celebrate as they watch their compatriot Imane Khelif win the gold medal. EPA

Algerian fans celebrate as they watch their compatriot Imane Khelif win the gold medal. EPA

Algerian fans celebrate as they watch their compatriot Imane Khelif win the gold medal. EPA

Algerian fans celebrate as they watch their compatriot Imane Khelif win the gold medal. EPA

Eliasch is firm in his desire to focus on the Games and the brilliance of the athletes as opposed to debates over policy. He said he had no intention of running for the post of IOC president but “the Olympic Movement is an organisation which is unique. It inspires, it brings hope, and it unites people. And in the current world we live in, with lots of division and disruption, that's more important than ever.”

“I thought long and hard about it,” Eliasch said, “and I finally pushed the button and sent in my application.”

The billionaire businessmen with a profound love of sport made his fortune by buying and turning around struggling companies. When he bought Head, an American Australian sports manufacturing company, it was losing approximately $45 million a year. Turning it into a global powerhouse, Eliasch wants to lean on his experience and run the IOC as a business with clear guidelines and efficient processes.

As with every business, recognising opportunities is of paramount importance and the IOC presidential hopeful is keen to allow developing countries and those with more challenging climates the opportunity to host the Games. He cited Saudi Arabia, who won the right to stage the 2029 Asian Winter Games, as an example. “In Saudi Arabia, it comes probably as a surprise to people, but they do have mountains which are quite high, 2,600 metres. And they do have snow three or four weeks of the year.

“So what they're doing there in Neom or Trojina, as the mountainous area is called, is taking advantage of the fact that they have snow and therefore, can stage the Asian Winter Games.”

Saudi Arabia 'well suited to host Asian Winter Olympic Games' says IOC figure Johan Eliasch

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Eliasch is the current president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation and has spent decades at the forefront of climate change activism. A committed climate campaigner and founder of Cool Earth NGO and climate change advisor to two UK prime minsters, it was put to him that some skeptics have argued that staging winter games in Saudi Arabia cannot be truly sustainable considering the enormous energy resources and water needed, not to mention all the travelling.

“Travel we're going to have wherever we go,” he says. “We're always going to be held hostage to our own fortune in that regard. And the better we do, the more fans we have, the more travel.

“So is it going to increase overall carbon footprints? Not sure, but you're right: the more successful we are, the more the carbon footprints will go up.”

Indeed it is because of, not in spite of, new territories being chosen to host Games that Eliasch feels it's important to educate people on how to reduce carbon footprints.

Saudi Arabia pledged that the 2029 Asian Winter Games would be “completely carbon neutral" through the use of solar power, hydrogen production for facilities and other innovative technologies like using heat pumps and heat exchangers.

Saudi Arabia launched a “Green Initiative” with the objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 and to reduce carbon emissions by 278 mtpa by 2030. The kingdom hopes to one day host an Olympic Games, with Eliasch saying it's important that the Olympic Movement is seen to be truly global.

“We [the Games] haven't been to Africa, we haven't been to the Middle East, we haven't been to India, and these are highly populated areas. We are about being global, and one day we should be there,” he says.

Inclusivity and ensuring equality for all IOC members is a core objective for Eliasch while in his manifesto he noted the need to reinforce trust and credibility.

One criticism levied at the IOC is its double standards when it comes to geopolitical issues with regards to the exclusion of certain countries from competing under their flag at the Games while allowing others to do so.

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the IOC recommended that Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials not be permitted to participate in sporting events "to protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants".

In October 2023, further action was taken, suspending the country’s National Olympic Committee for recognising regional sport organisations from four territories annexed from Ukraine.

In Paris 2024, Russian and Belarusian athletes competed as Individual Neutral Athletes but the IOC rejected calls from the Palestinian Olympic Committee to ban Israeli athletes from the Summer Games. The Palestinian NOC claims that approximately 400 Palestinian athletes have been killed since October 7, 2023 – the date Hamas launched an offensive on Israel – with much of their sporting infrastructure destroyed. They also cite the Israeli bombings in Gaza as a breach of the Olympic truce tradition.

The IOC once asserted “Olympic Movement is united in its mission to contribute to peace through sport” and “committed to fair competitions for everybody without any discrimination.”

“It's very important that we have to defend our political neutrality at all costs. Because athletes, they can't choose where they were born," Eliasch says. "And they should never be weaponised for political purposes. And that is why I strongly believe in the Individual Neutral Athlete Scheme that was deployed during Paris and it worked really well. And that's the way to go, in special circumstances.”

But how can anyone really separate politics from sport? Especially since it seems to not always apply equally.

“It should be applied equally,” Eliasch insists. “We are always going to be at the fringes of politics. It's really important that we don't get involved in and take sides. Political sides goes against of all values of sport. Sport is where people come together, friendly, uniting in a peaceful manner competing with respect and in friendship.”