Wrestling? How about surfing?

The agenda is patently obvious Wednesday, when the International Olympic Committee's policy-making executive board meets in St. Petersburg, Russia, to determine the next steps for the sports program at the 2020 Summer Games. Does wrestling stand a chance to get back in? Or will it be irretrievably out for at least for four years? What about baseball and softball's combined bid -- does it deserve the one spot now open for 2020? Or will the other sports, such as squash, karate or climbing, be given an opportunity to make their case?

No matter the decision, the bigger picture has already been revealed. The IOC's process for figuring out what sports should be in the Games is fundamentally flawed and needs wholesale review.

The fix the IOC is in can be crystalized by assessing the outcome of the wrestling dilemma -- a crisis of the IOC's own making.

If wrestling, which the board voted out in February, gets a chance Wednesday to come back, and then -- in September at the all-members session in Buenos Aires -- actually gets voted back on, that's testament to an an appropriately aggressive response from FILA, the international wrestling federation, and power politics from, among others, Russia, where wrestling really matters, and President Vladimir Putin.

Russia is playing host to the Sochi 2014 Winter Games in just a few months. At Putin's direction, some $51 billion has already been spent -- that we know of -- getting ready for Sochi.

Putin is due in St. Petersburg to meet Thursday with Rogge, the day after the executive board vote.

If it's ultimately wrestling again on the program, and you can for sure make that argument in good faith, here's the problematic next question: what changes will the IOC's post-London Games review toward 2020 have actually effected?

Zero. Zip. Nada.

This raises a completely different set of issues and questions. Because, one might argue, it is counter-productive indeed for the IOC to do nothing, to seem stale, when it proclaims time and again that its mission is to reach out to the young people of the world.

To be blunt: the IOC's No. 1 priority in an ever-changing world is to remain relevant. There's a reason why sports such as jeu de paume, pelota basque and croquet, once features of the Summer Games program, aren't on it any longer. The program evolves with time and circumstance.

Yes, and understandably, wrestlers want to shine at the Games. But so do shortstops on baseball teams. And girls around the world who play softball.

And, for that matter, so do surfers, skateboarders, dancers, mixed martial artists and others.

The IOC has spent more than 10 years, essentially since the Mexico City session in 2002, trying to figure what to do about the Summer Games line-up. With this result: baseball and softball out, golf and rugby sevens in.

That is not considerable progress.

It is abundantly plain that more progress on this issue is not going to, or can not, take place until after the election of the new IOC president, at the Buenos Aires session, in September.

After that, though, this issue ought to be a key priority.

Mindful that the IOC -- at least for now -- caps participation in the Summer Games at 10,500 athletes and 28 sports, and also appreciating that a logjam like this is going to take both time, some direct conversation and some out-of-the-box thinking, here is a proposal to start the dialogue.

To begin, because of the 10,500 cap, somebody's got to go.

Say good-bye to soccer (504 athletes in London), shooting (390) and equestrian (200). This assumes wrestling is gone as well (344). Now you have cleared 1438 spaces.

Soccer for sure does not need the Games. Obviously, the men's component at the Olympics is not even the beautiful game's top priority since the best players don't play.

As for shooting -- people are going to shoot guns no matter what.

And for equestrian -- horse shows will survive without the Olympics, it's always a complication getting the horses to the Games and while the proponents of equestrian sport like to talk about how it fosters an amazing connection between man and beast that anyone can enjoy, doesn't it really cost a lot of money -- an awful lot of money -- to compete at an elite level?

Another way to approach the 10,500 cap is to ask why there is a 10,500 cap. And why the Games only run for 17 days. But that's a different philosophical issue entirely.

At any rate, once you make room for new sports, here are sports to consider, sports that young people actually like and that would not only make for hot tickets live but would crank up TV ratings, too:

Surfing

Is there anyone who doesn't think surfing is cool? Who in the world doesn't think Hawaiian surf god Laird Hamilton is, like, the coolest guy on Planet Earth? Wouldn't he be an invaluable asset to the movement? Dude, there is an entire culture devoted to this sport.

The head of the International Surfing Assn. recognizes that the only way surfing makes its way into the Games is not out in the ocean. It's through man-made wave-park technology.

Purists would assuredly argue that would be betraying some of surfing's soulfulness. Who, though, says the soul of surfing requires it to be a sport for only those who live by the shore? That technology would spread the sport far and wide, allowing millions -- if not billions -- more access to it.

If you think beach volleyball is now the hot ticket at the Games -- imagine the scene at Olympic surfing.

Fernando Aguerre, 55, a surfer (of course) and president of the ISA, is a visionary, not just an entrepreneur and environmental activist but someone who for years now has understood the power of the Olympic movement to effect change.

Born and raised in Argentina -- where he founded the original Argentinean Surfing Assn. despite a military dictatorship ban on the sport at the time -- he now lives near San Diego, Calif.

Reef, the sandal and sportswear maker? That was his company. This summer, the surf industry's trade group SIMA -- which is more likely to honor the likes of a competitor like Kelly Slater -- is poised to give Aguerre its top prize, the Waterman of the Year Award.

The federation, incidentally, now counts 72 member federations. It includes world championships in a variety of categories. Further, ISA has launched a number of initiatives, including scholarship programs for young surfers in countries like Peru.

Aguerre said, looking at the sports in the Games program, "I believe restrictions on participation should exist. However, I think that in the best interest of the Olympic movement, the results should be applied to all sports -- those that are in the Games and those that are not in the Games. It should be a level playing field."

He added a moment later, "It's like I say about creating a menu for a party. It doesn't matter what food you serve in your house. You look at the best food, and then you create the menu. Then people are going to be happy."

Skateboarding

The IOC has done solid work in bringing snowboarding to the Winter Games. U.S. icon Shaun White is now a two-time Winter Games gold medalist.

White is also a skateboarding stud.

And yet he can't compete in skateboarding at the Summer Games?

This makes no sense, especially when you see skateboarders doing awesome tricks at the X Games.

The explanation is both simple and yet super-complex -- it's sports politics.

Without getting too deep, the IOC demands national federations and an international federation. And everyone understands that skateboarding could mean big money.

The snowboarding analogy: snowboarders got in through the skiing federation. Now it's all good. But at the time, in the late 1990s, it was far from easy.

The challenge for skateboarding is figuring out how to get in -- separately, or under the wing of another federation. The cycling federation, for instance, has often been mentioned. But that has never seemed like the right fit.

So, as IOC president Jacques Rogge said in a recent interview in Around the Rings, this is the impasse.

It needs to be worked out.

Again, see those skateboarders at the X Games?

DanceSport

When: Dec. 11, 2000.

Where: the Palace Hotel, Lausanne, Switzerland.

What: a standard and Latin DanceSport demonstration.

Who was there: then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, the entire IOC executive board, the IOC program commission and others, among them me. I walked out thinking, no way.

More than a dozen years later, and all I can say is, I was flat-out wrong, and I am here now to say it's time to admit it.

One: it's ridiculous to say the IOC doesn't allow dancing in the Games. Look at ice dancing in the Winter Olympics.

Two: they're real athletes. Ask Apolo Ohno, the eight-time U.S. short-track speed skating medalist, about how physically taxing it is to dance on "Dancing with the Stars." Or Shawn Johnson, the U.S. gymnast who won gold on the balance beam in Beijing in 2008 and who, like Ohno, is a "Stars" winner.

Three: have you seen the ratings for "Dancing with the Stars"? Or the British version, "Strictly Come Dancing," which started the entire thing? Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is not just a franchise but a worldwide phenomenon. And not just on TV. We're talking crazy on social media.

Tug of war

Is there a kid alive who has not played tug of war?

This is a sport that, with a little rock-and-roll music, some cheerleaders and a little sand, could become the next breakout hit -- again, the next beach volleyball.

What do you need to make tug of war happen? A rope. Where is there not a rope and some imagination?

A little-known fact is that tug of war was included in the Games from 1900 to 1912, and again in  1920. Time to bring it back!

As David Wallechinsky writes in his authoritative The Complete Book of the Olympics, a first-round pull resulted in one of the biggest controversies of the 1908 London Games: after the Liverpool Police pulled the U.S. team over the line in seconds, the Americans protesting that the Liverpudlians had used illegal boots spiked with steel cleats. The British maintained they were wearing standard police boots; the protest was disallowed and the Americans withdrew. After the tournament, the captain of the gold medal-winning London City Police challenged the Americans to a pull in their stockinged feet; there is no record of such a contest ever taking place, Wallechinsky writes.

Meanwhile, talk about universality. Imagine three-on-three teams from, say, American Samoa and Estonia. Why not?

Why not mixed teams? Men and women competing against each other? Maybe five-on-five?

All that would require some major rules changes, acknowledged Cathal McKeever, head of the sport's international federation, who said it is actively working to get back onto the program, perhaps by 2024.

"It's not like Michael Phelps," he said. "We don't have superstar individuals."

Not yet.

Mixed martial arts

Eight years ago, when I was still a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, I wrote a front-page story  about an up-and-coming sport, mixed martial arts, that U.S. Sen. John McCain, the Republican stalwart from Arizona, had once decried as "human cockfighting."

Since then, the UFC has gone on to become an enormous success story.

Mixed martial arts is already huge, it's still growing, young people can't get enough of it, and the time has come for the IOC to start coming to terms with it -- indeed, to get on board, because if you go to an MMA gym, the values that are preached there are thoroughly in line with the Olympic values: respect, excellence, friendship.

One of the primary ethos of an MMA fight is that it's OK to tap-out to live to fight again -- this shows respect not just for your opponent but for the sport itself.

Every excuse the IOC could come up with is just that -- an excuse.

For instance, there are those who don't like the fact that MMA is a "submission sport." But so is judo.

To be clear, this is a long-term proposition. The IOC and the international federation -- yes, there already is one, and it is not based in the United States -- would have to figure out how the basics of how to run a tournament. Could the athletes, for instance, reasonably be expected to fight three or four times over 16 days?

Here's the thing, though: where there's a will, there's a way. And when the IOC wants to get things done, it always does.

Oh, and to take this back to the beginning of this column, and wrestling, because wrestling has been around since the beginning of the modern Olympics in 1896 -- you know what was a major feature of the ancient Games, in Olympia itself? A discipline called pankration.

Today we would call that "mixed martial arts."

Oswald makes it five

Denis Oswald of Switzerland made it five Friday and three in one week, announcing that he, too, is now a candidate for the International Olympic Committee presidency. Oswald, experienced in virtually all facets of the movement -- as an athlete, IOC member and administrator -- sent a one-page letter to his fellow members that both declared his intent to run and outlined his extensive qualifications:

"My 40 years of service to the Olympic movement have provided me with a comprehensive understanding of our organization as well as its role and significance in the wider world.

"This knowledge and experience ... will enable me to advance the Olympic cause and enhance the IOC's authority as the leader of world sport.''

Oswald, 66, joins a list that includes C.K. Wu of Chinese Taipei (who announced Thursday), Richard Carrión of Puerto Rico (Wednesday) and Ser Miang Ng of Singapore and Thomas Bach of Germany (both earlier).

Sergei Bubka of Ukraine is also expected to jump in, perhaps as soon as next week.

The IOC will select the successor to Jacques Rogge Sept. 10 in Buenos Aires.

Rogge has been president since 2001. He took over from Juan Antonio Samaranch, who served for the 21 years before that.

That 2001 presidential election saw five candidates.

An intriguing back story to Oswald's announcement Friday is that some had been suggesting to him -- and quite directly -- that he consider options at the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Instead, he said in the letter, "In the coming weeks, I will have the opportunity to present to you my vision and philosophy which will inspire my actions on your behalf and that of the IOC."

He scheduled a news conference for June 3 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the IOC has its headquarters, to outline his plans. Oswald is based in nearby Colombier, near Neuchâtel.

If all IOC elections are based in large measure on relationships, it's also an inescapable fact that they are also math problems.

Oswald's entry into the race now means there are two western European candidates -- he and Bach. What Oswald's campaign means for Bach, the first to declare his candidacy and widely presumed to be the front-runner, is immediately unclear.

Oswald has, as he said in Friday's letter, been immersed in the movement at every level.

He competed in rowing at the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Games, winning a bronze medal in Mexico City in 1968.

A lawyer for many major companies since the mid-1970s, he has been president of the rowing federation, which goes by the acronym FISA, since 1989 -- his term there ends later this year -- and an IOC member since 1991.

He served as president of the Assn. of Summer Olympic International Federations from 2000-12; that gave him a spot during those years on the IOC's policy-making executive board.

Since 1984, he has been an arbitrator at sport's top court, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport; since 1994, he has been a CAS mediator.

Oswald served as chair of the IOC's coordination committees for both the 2004 Athens Games (despite any number of challenges) and the 2012 London Olympics (now a benchmark for future Games).

Wu's IOC vision: education

C.K. Wu of Chinese Taipei, the president of the international boxing association and a member of the International Olympic Committee's policy-making executive board, on Thursday announced he is running for the IOC presidency. Stressing that the Olympic movement ought to reach deep into communities worldwide to emphasize not just sport but culture and, especially, the education of young people, Wu said, "This is the way to look to the future."

He added, "The Olympic values should start early. When you are young, we all have family education. We learn a lot through the family. When I look at the problems facing us -- doping, match-fixing -- and beyond, all the issues that we care about, issues that are part of our responsibilities, you ask, how to tackle these?

"I am emphasizing the education."

Wu, 66, made his announcement at a news conference in Taipei, becoming the fourth candidate in the race, joining Richard Carrión of Puerto Rico -- who issued a statement on Wednesday -- as well as Ser Miang Ng of Singapore and Thomas Bach of Germany.

Sergei Bubka of Ukraine is also widely expected to join. Switzerland's Denis Oswald has been dropping hints, too, about getting in.

The IOC will elect its new president on Sept. 10 in Buenos Aires.

Jacques Rogge of Belgium has served since 2001. He replaced Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, who served for the 21 years before that.

Wu, a hugely successful architect who played a key role in developing the Milton Keynes project in Britain, has been an IOC member since 1988.

He served on the Beijing 2008 Games coordination commission and is on the same panel for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games. He also was a member of the 1998 Nagano Winter Games coordination commission.

He served on what was called the Cultural Commission from 1992-99 and since 2000 has been on what is now called the Culture and Olympic Education Commission.

For the past 11 years, he has been a member of the Philately, Numismatic and Memorabilia Commission -- that is, stamps, coins and other collectibles.

He and Samaranch shared an avid interest in collecting. Indeed, Samaranch bequeathed Wu his collection and, last month, the Samaranch Memorial Museum opened in Tianjin, China -- designed and financed in part by Wu.

Some may assess this 2013 presidential race and be tempted to underestimate Wu.

Wu, though, has a profound civility about him. And important allies. And a knack for beating the odds.

That museum, for instance? The first time the Chinese government allowed such a memorial to a foreign figure. In Wu, moreover, the project was overseen by a non-national. All that, and it got done -- and then some two dozen IOC members showed up at the dedication.

Wu has been president of AIBA since 2006. There were those who thought the controversial former president, Anwar Chowdhry, might never leave; Wu managed to oust him that year in an election. The next year, an AIBA ethics report outlined a series of financial irregularities during Chowdhry's 20-year reign.

Under Wu, AIBA has continued to undergo a series of reforms.

Last year, Wu ran for the IOC's executive board. Some thought, no way. He won.

In an interview, Wu said his idea for the presidency rests on those three core elements of sport, culture and education but emphasized that the president's ability to "transform and realize" Olympic ideals into practice is, and always will be, key.

Under the principle "beyond Olympism, together," he said, the IOC could "significantly enhance" its "contribution to humanity."

Through any and all tools, he reiterated his commitment to education worldwide with an emphasis on the Olympic values -- and even perhaps, he suggested, Olympic museums in host countries with programs supported by the IOC.

He said the IOC members should actively position themselves as part of "an organization that leads the effort in making our world a better place not only for our athletes and the Olympic family, but also for our neighbors and society at large.

“I strongly urge that we concentrate more on education than ever before. I truly believe that there is no better solution to fighting against these problems than providing young people with education early on. This is one of the best ways to bring the IOC well beyond what it has achieved ..."

In other areas, Wu suggested that all Olympic sports should be "protected" -- an intriguing note given the controversy over wrestling's bid to get back onto the program for the 2020 Summer Games. As for new sports, he suggested, the IOC might want to re-visit the idea of demonstration sports.

Wu proposed that the IOC revisit the age-70 limit set as part of the reforms enacted as a response to the late 1990s Salt Lake City scandal.

IOC membership is now set at 115. Wu suggested 130 on the grounds that it would bring in more national Olympic committee and international federation presidents.

For those who wish to underestimate him, Wu said with a gentle laugh, "Gradually, they will understand. I will talk with the colleagues. Last year's [executive board] election -- I got a very high vote. The members -- they recognize what I have done. At AIBA, the work I have done once seemed impossible and now people say, you have done it.

"The museum -- this is the culture side. We need a president with a cultural background. The body and the mind -- we need that, and education. The new president can emphasize the importance of this."

He also said, looking ahead to the campaign, "Competition is only for three or four months. Friendship is for forever."

Carrión lights his flame

It was a couple days before the start of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. The British Columbia weather was, as usual for that time of year, unpleasant -- rain and sleet. All the more charming, it was hardly 7:30 in the morning. And yet -- people were lined up three-deep to watch the Olympic flame go by. Those who had  prime viewing locations made way so that some in wheelchairs could get a look. People who had babies held them up high and said, out loud, to the little ones, "There it is."

Taking all this in that morning was the man who, for a couple minutes, ran with the flame, then handed it off on its next leg toward the cauldron and the opening ceremony -- Richard Carrión, the International Olympic Committee member from Puerto Rico.

On Wednesday, Carrión announced he is a candidate for the IOC presidency. Much will inevitably be made in the weeks and months to come about how Carrión is a banker, a businessman who has negotiated the IOC's major television rights deals, indeed arguably the IOC's key financier -- all of that -- and how he would bring best-practices sensibilities to the office.

That, though, is not why he is running.

Thinking back to that morning now more than three years ago, Carrión said, "The people were there to watch the torch -- not the guy.

"That flame evokes an emotion. That is the most powerful thing we have going for us. The minute we think this a business or a professional meeting, we are lost.

"This is fundamentally an organization built around universal values that tries to bring out the best of us in every way. That is what makes me feel privileged to give the organization the time I have given it the past 23 years. I feel it is a privilege -- not something I should be compensated for. That is what stirs the passion in me."

Carrión, 60, is third to announce his candidacy, joining Germany's Thomas Bach and Singapore's Ser Miang Ng.

C.K. Wu of Chinese Taipei, Sergei Bubka of Ukraine and Denis Oswald of Switzerland are other likely or potential candidates. The IOC will vote Sept. 10 in Buenos Aires. The winner will replace Jacques Rogge, who has served for 12 years.

Carrión, as he noted, has been an IOC member since 1990. He served as a member of the policy-making executive board from 2004 until last year. He has been chair of the IOC finance commission since 2002.

Though the global economic downturn has rocked governments and businesses worldwide, the IOC has over the past 10 years increased its reserves from $100 to some $900 million, guaranteeing funds sufficient to withstand an entire four-year cycle without Games.

How? Finance stuff -- opening up the bidding process itself for the sale of broadcast rights, holding more country-by-country TV bidding and readjusting the pay-out to Games' organizing committees to an inflation-based formula.

Over the course of the campaign, the two challenges Carrión is most likely to hear most often -- which he straight-up acknowledges -- are, first, his demeanor, and two, the fact that unlike some of the others, he was not an Olympian, professional athlete or even sport functionary before a business career.

To take the second one first, perhaps only within the IOC would that even remotely grasp at logic. Carrión has been chief executive (since 1989) and then chairman (since 1993) of Popular, Inc., the financial institution that now claims $37 billion in assets.

Meanwhile, an easy check of the website for FIBA, the international basketball association, would show Carrión's name there as a central board member. It's hardly as if he doesn't know or understand sport -- he serves now on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro coordination commission and pulled similar duty on the 1996 Atlanta commission.

As for his personality -- Carrión can command a room but does not easily glad-hand it. This can sometimes create the wrong impression. At first, he can seem shy. Beneath the reserve, it turns out, he is not just sensible and level but, indeed, gracious and personable.

As for campaigning, he said, "I just have to do it. i just have to go out and sit down and say, 'This is what I think, you are important to me and your ideas are important to me. I am a listener. You can talk to me all day long. That doesn't mean I will do what you say -- but it will weigh in my mind.

"I am not subject to any kind of pressures. I have resisted pressures. I have dealt with large companies and large organizations all my life. I have a global perspective. I am independent, in the sense that I am not subject to any kind of pressure."

The IOC, Carrión made plain, finds itself now in good standing. At the same time, this election sees much at stake.

Why? Economic strains threaten sports across countries of all sizes. The Olympic Games themselves have become increasingly complex to stage. Doping and illegal betting represent significant threats. And, as a social trend, there is the growing rate of inactivity and obesity among young people in certain countries.

A key point: it's not just the Olympic movement of 2013 that's at issue. It's what the movement will look like in 2021 or, given the way things really work, with the next president on deck to serve not just the standard first eight-year term but a full 12 years, 2025. Moreover, it's not just about the Games -- it's about the movement and its reach to the big cities and little villages of the world alike.

Carrión outlined some broad themes and, at the same time, some potential action steps. The IOC, he said, should:

-- Use a "multi-partner approach" to better achieve what it calls "universality," or worldwide inclusion. A foundation of the Olympic movement is that sport is a human right. But governments -- which largely fund sport -- are facing tough choices. Carrión's notion? The IOC's United Nation observer status and added partnerships with non-governmental organizations can help. "We have a treasure trove of knowledge of what is working," he said, "so that at the community level we can put plans in place."

-- Create a special new fund for grass-roots sports education and development, one that complements the existing Olympic Solidarity program, which aims more at elite sport. Last month, in Lima, Peru, the IOC held a conference on "Sport for All." This was the IOC's 15th such conference; it went on for four days; 500 leading experts from almost 90 nations attended. Now, as a point of contrast: the IOC's "Sport for All" budget for the 2009-2012 cycle -- $2.2 million. If that sounds like a decent sum, consider that there are 204 national Olympic committees. Consider, too, that Solidarity's budget for the same period was $311 million. Which means that Sport for All's budget for the same period was 0.7074 percent of Solidarity's.

-- Lessen the burden of hosting the Games or run the risk -- as is already perhaps being seen -- in limiting future bids to a handful of countries. One way: bring in-house some Olympic Games functions. This sort of non-sexy, but essential, idea actually could save big dollars. The IOC already knows this, because it has the model in place: Olympic Broadcasting Services. OBS has shown that with the same teams in place you can gain greater efficiencies, higher quality and greater productivity.

-- Take a broad look at the reforms enacted in the wake of the late 1990s Salt Lake City crisis. Carrión served on the commission that pushed for the reforms, which include an age-70 age limit. Now, he says, "The important thing is we need to review these things. Twelve years later, we can better gauge the effect of some of these things," noting the members' skills and diversity are not being tapped to their fullest.

-- Urge for the inclusion of women at management and executive positions throughout the IOC and the movement. "We do," he said, "need to show some leadership and increase that."

Others will of course have held a news conference to mark their presidential candidacies. Not Carrión, who is sending a letter and his "manifesto," or to-do plan, to the members. For him -- that's enough.

"It is part of my style," he said. "It drives most of the things that I do -- let's be as efficient as possible."

Ng's moment: symbolism, vision

In a moment rich with symbolism, Singapore's Ser Miang Ng announced Thursday he is a candidate to become the next president of the International Olympic Committee. Ng, 64, made the announcement in Paris, at the Sorbonne, the university where in 1894 Pierre de Coubertin and his invitees met in the Salle Octave Gréard to revive the Olympic Games. There began the audacious idea of making this modern Olympic committee something that might someday be truly, indeed profoundly, international.

Now the movement includes more national Olympic committees, 204, than the United Nations has member states, 193.

The "values of sport," Ng said Thursday, "are tomorrow's living Olympic legacies." At the same time, he said, "The world is changing -- and the movement must evolve with it."

Ng's candidacy makes two now in the presidential race. He joins Germany's Thomas Bach, who jumped in last Thursday.

Others expected to make announcements in the coming days include Ukraine's Sergei Bubka, Puerto Rico's Richard Carrión and C.K. Wu of Chinese Taipei.

The deadline for declaring is June 10. The vote is due to be held Sept. 10 at the IOC's all-members assembly in Buenos Aires. The new president will replace Jacques Rogge, who has led the IOC since 2001; Rogge replaced Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, who served for the 21 years before that.

With one exception, American Avery Brundage, who served from 1952 to 1972, all the IOC presidents have been European.

Even now, the IOC remains traditionally Eurocentric -- 43 of the current 101 members are European -- and Bach is widely presumed to be the front-runner in the campaign.

That said, Ng has for months been traveling the world, quietly sounding out the membership.

Ng's resume, briefly: Successful businessman and diplomat. Former vice president of the international sailing federation. Chair of the organizing committee of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, in Singapore in 2010. Member of the London 2012 and Beijing 2008 coordination commissions. IOC member since 1998 and its current first vice president.

Ng set the stage for Thursday's announcement by meeting Monday with Rogge at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. To then seize the moment by invoking de Coubertin and what Ng called this "historic, sacred place where I am inspired by our past and encouraged for our future" -- it ought to be plain that Ng is savvy, indeed, and can be expected to be a formidable candidate.

Ng said in an interview, "The IOC is strong and on sound footing thanks to the leadership of President Rogge. But definitely we live in fast-changing times, with economic challenges around the world. A lot more can be done; there is a lot more we can do. It will take discussions with members to reach a shared vision; we can go from there. Definitely we are on a shared foundation, a shared footing."

The vision thing is one of three notes that came through loud and clear from the Sorbonne:

One, Ng's emphasis on Olympic values. Young people need to be "at the center of the movement," he said, and the IOC members themselves, "blessed with a wealth of experience and knowledge," must be empowered to work with other stakeholders to "share our strengths."

He talked, too, about "silent heroes" such as Games volunteers and organizing committee staff -- with "inspiring Olympic stories to share," and said the IOC should "help them do so."

Two, while some press accounts will inevitably try to portray him as an "Asian candidate," as if that was some sort of one-dimensional thing,  he said, "I am proud to be Asian but I am also a global citizen."

Ng is Singapore's ambassador to Norway, its former ambassador to Hungary and chaired IOC commissions that chose African and South American cities to host IOC assemblies.

He added, "I understand that the strength of the movement lies within its diverse interests and perspectives -- all of which are valuable -- now more than ever."

Three, Ng for sure can rattle off details of what he would want to do, and in the "manifesto" -- Olympic jargon for to-do plan -- he is already sending to the members there absolutely are details. Some would seem obvious, and he talked about them Thursday: review the size and cost of the Games as well as the sports on the Olympic program.

That Ng's manifesto is already in the mail stands as an immediate, and intriguing, point of campaign contrast with Bach. Bach said he plans to wait until next month to make his platform available to the members.

At the same time, Ng played Thursday to the big picture -- to "goals not yet realized ... summits not yet reached ... and vistas not yet seen."

He said, "The Olympic movement faces an increasingly interconnected world.

"This will require a leader with an inclusive leadership style and worldview based on collective input and decision-making.

"And, this will require a leader who can empower the Olympic movement behind a unifying vision."

In an interview, he elaborated: "I believe this competition is not about me. It's about vision and style of leadership. I believe we need inclusion and a universal leader who is able to take into account all the different views and to empower members to be involved. The movement is bigger than one. The movement is bigger than one's self."

Back to his remarks at the Sorbonne. He closed by saying: "At every Olympic Games, the world comes together in a celebration of what it means to be human, what it means to strive and what it means to share in each other's dreams.

"…The future of the Olympic movement is written in the dreams of young people around the world. It is my most sincere desire to help all young people, everywhere, make those dreams come true. Thank you. Merci beaucoup."

Straight talk about Qatar

They held a track meet Friday on a typically warm and balmy evening in Doha, the opening Diamond League event of the 2013 season. It was sensational. American long jumper Brittney Reese, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist, sailed out to a personal best, 7.25 meters, or 23 feet, 9 1/2 inches. It was the best jump by an American in 15 years.

Another London gold medalist, David Rudisha of Kenya, won again, in 1:43.87, considerably slower than his world-record 1:40.91 at the Games. That was to be expected for an early-season outing. Even so, he beat Mohammed Aman of Ethiopa -- who had beaten him last year in Zurich -- by more than half a second.

In the women's 400, Amantle Montsho of Botswana defeated Allyson Felix in a rematch of their thrilling encounter at the 2011 world championships in Daegu, South Korea; Felix hadn't lost in Doha in 10 races but, then again, hadn't run the 400 in a meet since Daegu. Montsho crossed Friday night in 49.88, Felix in 50.19. Britain's Christine Ohuruogu, the London silver medalist, took third, in 50.53.

In all, there were 11 world-leading performances. More than two dozen Olympians made the meet.

The focus Friday in Doha was on track and field. Nothing else. It just goes to show -- again -- that when given a chance, the Qataris know how to put on a big-time sports event where the athletes are front and center.

It's a mystery why so much of the world -- still -- views what is going on in Doha with such suspicion.

It's as if having money is a bad thing.

Like, why?

That is stupid thinking and ought to stop.

This is not naiveté.

If there is evidence of misconduct or wrongdoing, then it should be produced, and examined for everyone to see.

If there is not, then what is at issue is stereotyping, or worse -- and that really needs to stop. Because, as Fahad Ebrahim Juma, the director of planning and development for the Qatar Olympic Committee said in a recent interview in Doha, "Believe it or not, the Middle East is part of this earth."

One day, there are going to be Olympic Games in the Middle East.

Maybe they will be in Istanbul in 2020. The International Olympic Committee is going to vote this September on the 2020 site; Istanbul is in the mix, along with Tokyo and Madrid.

If Istanbul doesn't make it, Doha -- which bid for 2016 and 2020 but was cut -- will surely bid for 2024. Maybe even if Istanbul does make it. Who knows?

Of course, Qatar will stage soccer's World Cup in 2022.

Again, if there is documentable evidence of misconduct or wrongdoing in the Qatari World Cup bid, bring it on.

Until then, here is some of the evidence of what is actually going on in Qatar:

The country is being developed, and rapidly, according to a "National Vision 2030" plan that includes sport as one of its key pillars.

Part of the strategy involves international outreach. In 1993, Qatar staged two international sports events. In 2002, 10. This year, 40. The 2020 objective, 50.

Next year, it will stage the world swimming short-course championships; in 2015, the world handball championships; in 2016, the road cycling championships.

The Qataris announced Friday they intend to bid for the 2019 world track and field championships; they tried for 2017 but lost to London.

Another element of the 2030 plan is an internal focus. An Olympic program in the country's schools drew 5,000 students in 2008 -- 1,500 girls and 3,500 boys. This year, roughly 21,900 students -- 7,555 girls, 14,345 boys.

At the London Games, Qatar sent women to the Games for the first time -- four. But it's not as if there aren't Qatari female athletes. More than 200 Qatari women competed at the 2006 Asian Games. The Qataris are, for the most part, trying to get their female athletes to the Games by qualifying them the way every other nation does, not just by accepting wild-card invitations in swimming and track.

The nation's flag-bearer at the opening ceremony in London: female shooter Bahiya al-Hamad.

Yes, you can see women in veils in Doha. But, this spring at the QMA Gallery at Katara, near the upscale West Bay development, you could also have taken in the "Hey Ya!" photo and video exhibit -- shots of Arabic women in swimsuits; gymnastics leotards; sports bras, shorts and track spikes; whatever.

You could also have taken in a production across town of the Greek tragedy, "Medea," put on by Northwestern University in Qatar. Northwestern is one of several leading institutions with branch campuses in Qatar -- others include Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Commonwealth, Georgetown's foreign service school and Cornell's medical school.

You could have gone shopping at the Villagio mall. It has an ice rink in it. And a food court. And every shop-'til-you-drop outlet you can imagine. It's right next to the Aspire complex, with a 50,000-seat stadium and a sports-specific hospital. They put on the 2010 world indoor track and field championships at Aspire.

Or -- and this is where the Qataris got their latest round of bad press -- you could have taken in the "Olympics: Past and Present" Exhibit in a temporary hall close to the Museum of Islamic Art. The show will run there until June 30; it's due eventually to be housed in a Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum.

The exhibit, which opened in March, is split into two parts, one highlighting ancient Olympia, the other the modern Games. On display are some 1,200 items, including over 600 from Greece and international museums.

There's a mini-Olympic stadium. There are Olympic posters and mascots. There is every Olympic torch -- including the super hard-to-find Helsinki 1952 torch.

The display, put together by Dr. Christian Wacker, a German historian, is genuine. It is engaging. Most important, it doesn't skirt the truth -- it confronts the honest realities that, for instance, the Games have had boycotts and been shadowed by doping problems.

All that, and the one thing that the European press bothered to write about -- which then made the English-language wire services -- is some nude statues?

A compromise -- a fabric six feet in front of the statues -- didn't suit the Greek Culture Ministry. So the antiquities were a no-go, and reportedly shipped back to Athens, where it somehow became a story.

Why? Because cultural sensitivities in Doha are, on some level, different than in Athens? Who got together and decided that cultural standards in Athens make the world go around?

The controversy is all the more incredible given that this exhibit is -- again -- literally in the shadow of one of the world's finest exhibits of Islamic art.

Beyond which -- there is nudity in the exhibit, including a lovely small bronze.

Four Olympic champions, meanwhile, were among those touring the show on Wednesday: Felix, Reese, American triple-jumper Christian Taylor and Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

It was normal.

Then they, and a bunch of other top athletes, went out Friday night and ran. Normal.

"I love racing in Doha," said Kellie Wells, the London bronze medalist in the women's 100 hurdles, who finished second Friday, behind London silver medalist Dawn Harper-Nelson.

Harper-Nelson ran a world-leading 12.6; Wells ran a season-best 12.73. "It's always great to run here," Wells said. "Every single time."

Bach into the race first

Thomas Bach announced his candidacy Thursday for the International Olympic Committee presidency. It's not news, really, that he's running. The only issue was the timing.

Everyone in Olympic circles has been mindful for years that Bach has been interested in the top job. Indeed, he is, by most accounts, considered the front-runner for the presidency. Now comes the time to find out, with the election Sept. 10 in Buenos Aires, if being the front-runner, indeed announcing first, proves smart campaign strategy.

"I didn't want to keep other members in the dark any longer," Bach said at a news conference in Frankfurt, according to wire service reports. "I think it is the right time."

Bach would seem to meet most every qualification you could think of for the job. He is an Olympic gold medalist, in 1976 in fencing. He has been an IOC member since 1991. Without interruption, he has been a member of the policy-making executive board since 1996.

As chairman of the IOC juridicial commission, Bach -- a lawyer -- heads inquiries into most doping cases. He has chaired evaluations for cities bidding for Summer and Winter Games. He leads European television rights negotiations for the IOC. He is the head of the German national Olympic confederation, which goes by the acronym DOSB.

"With my management and leadership experience on the national and international level of sport, but also in business and politics and society, I am well trained for this great task," he said in a telephone  call with reporters after the news conference.

Other probable candidates include Sergei Bubka of Ukraine, Richard Carrión of Puerto Rico, Ser Miang Ng of Singapore and C.K. Wu of Chinese Taipei. The deadline for declaring is June 10, three months ahead of the vote.

The winner will succeed Jacques Rogge of Belgium, who will have served 12 years. Rogge took over from Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain.

The timing of Bach's announcement is most intriguing. Rumors had been circulating about who was going to get out there first -- and it was not Bach.

But then, suddenly, it was Bach, and it was him saying on the conference call, "This campaign for IOC president is not like a political campaign because the IOC members, they know all the candidates very well. They know what they are standing for, they know what they have contributed in the past to the Olympic movement and they know what they think."

He added, for emphasis, that it was "very much about convincing the members rather than about the public at large."

Step one, apparently, was what Bach did Wednesday in advance of Thursday's announcement.

Again, the timing -- most interesting.

He sent the members a letter -- he talked about it in Thursday's conference call -- that included a copy of the 10-page speech he presented in October, 2009, in Copenhagen at the Olympic Congress on the structure of the movement. That speech focuses on the notion of how sport must maintain autonomy in a complex 21st-century world. It refers to sources such as the philosopher Immanuel Kant. It prizes "respect, responsibility, reliability."

The headline on the speech: "Unity in diversity." That, Bach said Thursday, is the working mantra for his campaign as he "listen[s] even more carefully to the members" over the next several weeks before presenting a real-world plan for what he would do as president.

This microcosm highlights Bach in action. It also presents some of the challenges to his campaign.

Kant? Ten pages? Structure?

After years of anticipation -- that's the opening play?

There is an enormously delicate balance to be struck in this sort of campaign. The IOC presidency is a serious job, and the members have to know you are legitimate. At the same time, as Bach articulated in that conference call, this is a race that is something more like running for high-school class president than prime minister.

Once more, then, about the timing of all this -- so, so interesting. Was Bach being pro-active or hurriedly reactive in the belief that someone else might be setting the presidential agenda by being out first? Why else send out the preemptive strike of a (more than) three-year-old 10-page tome on the structure of the movement?

The skeptic would say that would simply buy time to put together his real manifesto.

In the meantime, what tone does this launch set for his campaign?

Whatever the motivation, always understand this: Bach is smart, capable, resourceful and formidable. His allies are all those things, as well.

An intriguing back story to Bach's campaign is that, for the moment, he would appear to be not only the single major western European candidate but, obviously, German.

The DOSB on Thursday issued a statement of support for him. From Berlin, Associated Press reported, German chancellor Angela Merkel "wishes him success."

Ordinarily, being European in the Eurocentric IOC might seem a huge advantage.

Then again, when one looks around at major international organizations, one is hard-pressed to find many Germans in charge. Until just a few weeks ago, the pope was German -- but now there is a new pope, and he is South American.

There are 35 Olympic sports. Only two have German presidents, modern pentathlon and luge. Neither is considered particularly influential.

Will Bach's German-ness prove an advantage, or not? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, Bach said Thursday he intends to run a clean campaign: "The campaign I am running is in favor of me. I am not running against anybody else. This is my leading consideration in what I will do these next four months."

The IOC presidency Top-10 list

The next president of the International Olympic Committee, whoever it will be, takes over an organization that is, in these early years of the 21st century, at a crossroads. By many indicators, one would look at the Olympic movement and see positive trend lines. The Games in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012 were memorable, indeed. The five rings are, without question, one of the world's top brands. The IOC itself seems to have weathered the global economic downturn.

At the same time, the pace of change in today's world is ever-increasing and the paramount challenge facing the movement is not merely to remain a source of connection and inspiration. Bluntly, and above all else, it's to remain relevant.

The new president will be elected in September at an all-members IOC assembly in Buenos Aires. He -- the presumed candidates are, at this moment, all men -- will replace Jacques Rogge of Belgium, who has served as president since 2001.

The potential candidates are believed to include, in alphabetical order, Thomas Bach of Germany, Sergei Bubka of Ukraine, Richard Carrión of Puerto Rico, Ser Miang Ng of Singapore and C.K. Wu of Chinese Taipei.

Mr. President-to-be, you did not ask for a Top-10 list of what you need to do when you set up shop on Day One at the Chateau de Vidy, the IOC headquarters by Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland. Please consider this merely an early expression of goodwill in the form of constructive suggestion, along with a healthy measure of good luck -- because, sir, you're going to need that, too.

1. Be a thought leader

There is a lot to be said for making money. Every other sporting concern -- the soccer leagues, American football, the NBA, the NHL -- is there to make money. But that's not what the Olympic movement, and by extension the IOC, are about. The movement stands for a set of ideals, and for values such as excellence, friendship and respect. The Games are the expression of those ideals and values, and at their best they produce moments that remind us of the best in each of us. As IOC boss, given that you get to meet with presidents, prime ministers and with school kids, too, your job is to promote those values. Relentlessly. Creatively. The mission is not to organize good Games. That's too narrow. Instead, it is to make the ideals and values shine so brightly that they draw in young people and communities. The money will follow.

2. Fix the Summer Games program

In Vancouver in 2010, there were 24 medal opportunities in freeskiing and snowboarding. In Sochi next winter: 48. That speaks to the IOC's understanding of how to keep the Winter Games program fresh and current. As for the Summer Games program? Not so much. The IOC has added rugby and golf for 2016 and 2020. Under Rogge, it has dropped baseball and softball. It now threatens to drop wrestling. The controversy over the policy-making executive board's move in February to drop wrestling from the 25-sport "core," and the uncertainty over the process by which sports might be added to the program underscores the wider bewilderment. Beyond process, there is also substance. It says everything you need to know that skateboarding is not even on the shortlist for inclusion. Or that dual trampoline and synchronized diving are in but wrestling is fighting for its Olympic life. This might make sense to IOC insiders -- who understand the distinction in Olympic jargon between "disciplines," "events" and "sports" -- but to much of the outside world looking in, it can be all too difficult to fathom. Is that a good thing?

3. Make wholesale changes to the bid city process

Every two years, the roughly 100 IOC members award the next edition of the Games -- whether  Winter or Summer, each is a multibillion-dollar proposition -- to a city and country that has spent millions chasing the prize. The members, because of rules imposed after the late 1990s Salt Lake City corruption scandal, are not allowed to visit the bid cities. Instead, an IOC evaluation commission tours the cities and issues a report. Problematically, many members acknowledge not reading that report. Is this best practices? Short answer: no. The time has come to thoroughly re-visit the bid city rules. The bids cost too much. For that matter, the members should be permitted once again to visit the cities. Some things really do have to be seen to be -- well, if not believed then at least perceived. The problem is not trusting the members -- it is, as it always has been, about trusting the cities. Here are some further assumptions for a thorough review of the bid process: since the Games are supposed to be about sport, not nation-building, perhaps future bids should meet some metric of preparation. Examples for consideration: Should x percent of venues already be completed? Should non-organizing committee budgets not be over $x billion? Should total budgets not exceed $x billion? In 2003, the IOC adopted a report calling for prudence, indeed modesty, in Games build-out and venue construction; the 2014 Sochi price tag is now known to be at least $51 billion. That sort of disconnect merits some hard reflection.

4. Fix the Youth Games, or get rid of this experiment

Why are the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China? Originally, the notion was that YOG was a vehicle for cities and nations that couldn't possibly stage the "regular" Games. Example: the inaugural version, in Singapore in 2010. Already, though, the second Summer YOG will be in China, where the Summer Games themselves were staged in 2008? With, it must be said, a budget of more than $300 million? Why? Is that only to keep this initiative alive? Big picture -- what, exactly, is YOG doing? Originally, again, the idea was to connect teenagers more actively with the Olympic movement. Where is the real evidence YOG is achieving that goal? The Young Reporters project run as part of YOG has proven an unqualified success. But what metric shows YOG itself gets the Olympic spirit moving in teens? It is true, for instance, that South Africa's Chad le Clos won five medals in swimming in Singapore and then won on to defeat Michael Phelps in the 200-meter butterfly in London. But le Clos wasn't inspired to swim with Phelps because of what happened in Singapore. It had been his dream to race against Phelps ever since he saw Phelps compete in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

5. Decide: who, really, are the IOC members, and what are they doing?

The Rogge years have seen a concentration of power in the executive board and in the growing numbers of staff at Vidy. This has left many members wondering what, exactly, they're there to do. They vote for the bid cities -- but don't get to see them. They vote on the sports -- but not for sports that many would like to see on the ballot. The IOC's sessions, as the annual assemblies are called, are not -- repeat, not -- exercises in robust floor debate but, rather, a succession of reports read out, often numbingly, to the members. To quote Peggy Lee: is that all there is? For all that, the line to get in as an IOC member remains long, and that needs to be addressed, too, because the current rules -- again, adopted in the wake of the Salt Lake affair -- make it difficult to recruit someone not affiliated with an international federation or particular national Olympic committee. Has that proven a sound notion or too limiting? As for the athlete members -- in theory, that is a good idea but in practice they can be treated as second-class citizens because everyone knows they're done after eight years. One essential -- the mandatory retirement limit, again a function of the Salt Lake reforms, is now 70. It should be raised to 75.

6. Re-balance the "pillars"

Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC president for 21 years before Rogge, used to talk about how the Olympic movement depended on the unity of certain "pillars," likening the entire thing to a table stool and insisting all the legs needing to be equal. There are the national Olympic committees, he would say. The international federations. The IOC. The IFs? How many of them right now could stand to be more accountable in terms of governance, use of IOC funds and anti-doping efforts? The more than 200 NOCs? How many of them could stand to have their governance brought into line with 21st century IOC practices? The Samaranch era, of course, has given way to a far more complex time in which there are other "pillars" that must be included in the calculus. While the IOC has always moved with governments around the world, the pressures on state-funded sport -- which but for the United States means virtually everywhere -- are now especially pronounced. And yet at the Games, if the IOC were called to produce records, how would it say it treated sports ministers, particularly from developing nations? Life, as Samaranch always taught, is a relationship business.

7. Re-think the broadcast strategy

This is the elephant in the room: NBC is the cash cow (apologies for mixing cows and elephants) that keeps the Olympic movement funded as we know it now. Its most recent deal is for broadcast rights to the Games in the United States from 2014 through 2020, and is worth $4.38 billion. NBC is paying $775 million for the 2014 Winter Games, $1.226 billion for the 2016 Summer Games, $963 million for the 2018 Winter Games and $1.418 billion for 2020. Three obvious questions: 1. How long can the IOC expect an American television network to keep carrying the financial load, as NBC has done for a generation? 2. How long is it reasonable to expect the U.S. Olympic Committee to remain politically sidelined -- as it has been, partly because of its own internal issues, for most of the Rogge years -- while an American network is so economically potent? 3. Compare: Brazilian TV rights for 2014-16, $210 million (after a 2012 Games that saw disappointing ratings there). China, 2014-16: $160 million. France, 2014-16: $120 million. Now, please, refer once more to the NBC sum and then to obvious questions 1 and 2 in this section, and ask, what is wrong with this picture?

8. Make the anti-doping campaign a priority, and betting, too

Rogge, a doctor, has talked a good game about trying to stamp our performance-enhancing drugs. He genuinely means it. A fair reading of the record during his term, however, will detail the BALCO and Lance Armstrong scandals in the United States; widespread doping in Russian sport; the Operation Puerto matter in Spain; and more. To be clear, the IOC president is not -- repeat, not -- to blame for cheating in elite sport. That would be absurd. He has the authority, however, to help engineer an even more coordinated effort -- and way less infighting -- between the IOC, the IFs, governments and the World Anti-Doping Agency. Governments need to understand the plain truth, and get serious about spending real money: sports stars are role models and the entire Olympic enterprise depends on the credibility of clean competition. For their part, the IFs need to stop fighting WADA over the truth, too -- athletes cheat because they can, and they do because performance-enhancing drugs work. To read the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's "reasoned decision" in the Armstrong case is to sit down with a legal brief that reads like a John le Carré thriller. For its part, WADA needs to figure out what to do about a system in which doping tests prove almost nothing -- Marion Jones, a serial cheater, passed 160 tests without a problem, and Armstrong got through hundreds cleanly -- and far too many cases are marijuana-related positives, which burn up time and resource, and prove -- what? Illegal betting, meanwhile, represents the next systemic threat to the Olympic movement. The IOC -- along with police and prosecutors -- must make it clear, as Rogge has done, that it will tackle match fixing aggressively.

9. Make equality count

On the field of play, especially at the Summer Games, the IOC is nearing gender equity. In London, every nation sent female athletes -- a first. Women made up 44 percent of the competitors in London; that's up from 23 percent in Los Angeles in 1984. In Sochi next February, women will, finally, take part in ski jumping -- evidence, too, of how the IOC moves, if sometimes too slowly for some, toward increasing the number of women's events on the program. The next issue: the percentage of women in executive and management positions. Simply put, it is way too low. The NOCs, IFs, national federations and others within the movement originally set a target of reserving 20 percent of all decision-making positions for women by 2005; this objective was not met. The current numbers, based on survey responses from 110 of the 205 NOCs (a 53.7 percent rate -- itself showing that not enough take the matter seriously) and from 70.4 percent of the IFs: women account for only 4 percent of NOC presidents and 3.2 percent of IF presidents; as well 17.6 percent of the seats on NOC executive boards, 18 percent on IF boards. Those numbers must -- to repeat, must -- go up. Doubters? The IOC Charter -- rule 2, paragraph 7 -- declares that one of the roles of the IOC is to "encourage and support the promotion of women in sport at all levels and in all structures, with a view to implementing the principle of equality of men and women."

10. Communicate, communicate, communicate

The IOC needs a 21st century media department and press officer. Two reasons: 1. External communication is far too dependent -- almost to the point of ridiculous exclusion of everyone else -- on the wire services to get its message out. But the media landscape is changing -- if not changed already. Moreover, in far too many cases, the IOC -- for whatever reason -- can seem defensive in relaying whatever the message might be. That's mysterious. The IOC so often has a great story to tell. Again, it is the only enterprise rooted in ideals and values. 2. The IOC's internal communications system is so lacking that any number of members and staff have created their own ad hoc networks to find out what's what. Fixing both elements, external and internal communications, ought to be a pressing priority.

It's 2013, not 1750 - a call for vision

Here's a revolutionary idea -- revolutionary, that is, only if this were 1750, not 2013. What about having each of the candidates for the International Olympic Committee presidency actually present his vision -- "his," because it appears the candidates are likely to be men -- before the July 3-4 extraordinary session in Lausanne, Switzerland?

As it happens, this is the subject of ferocious internal IOC debate.

It should be a no-brainer.

Of course, each of the candidates should present, and publicly, what in IOC terms is typically called a "manifesto."

The IOC has in many ways made great strides since the Salt Lake City corruption scandal shook the organization in the late 1990s.

At the same time, it suffers still from a lack of accountability and transparency and -- remarkably, given that the institution, alone among all major sports entities, is rooted in a sense of values -- a defensiveness when it comes to meeting the press and explaining, in any number of areas, its position.

Frankly, it's something of a mystery.

Jacques Rogge's 12 years as president are winding to a close. In September, at the session in Buenos Aires, the IOC will elect his successor. Even now, the presumed candidates are traveling the world, assessing their chances and, as well, their rivals.

The list of probable presidential candidates, in alphabetical order: Thomas Bach of Germany, Sergei Bubka of Ukraine, Richard Carrión of Puerto Rico, Ser Miang Ng of Singapore, C.K. Wu of Chinese Taipei.

This list is not final nor official. Nothing is allowed yet to be official; formal declarations aren't even't allowed to be forthcoming for a few more weeks yet.

Even so, pretty much everyone within Olympic circles knows who's going to run; who's not; and who's on the fence.

The last contested election -- the one that saw Rogge succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch -- took place in 2001.

The tension that's at issue -- then and now -- is that the IOC is of course in some ways a very public institution, and the IOC president in every way a worldwide public figure. At the same time, the IOC itself, while obviously carrying on with the attributes of a multibillion-dollar, multinational business, is at its core an exclusive, per-invitation members-only (101 right now, thank you) club.

As a club, it writes its own rules.

It changes or modifies those rules in response to a variety of interests. For those who might believe otherwise -- the IOC is typically a hugely rational institution.

In 2001, Rogge circulated a manifesto among the members.

It suggested that "common sense should incite us to look at ways of slightly reducing the size, cost and complexity of the Games in order to make them less vulnerable to the future. This approach would enable all continents and regions to organize the Games more easily and would encourage geographical rotation."

Two years later, the IOC adopted a study that called for curbs on the costs and size of the Games. Even so, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Sochi 2014 and now Rio 2016 have all gone on to be blockbuster, bank-busting projects.

At the same time, the notion of geographical rotation has for sure been fulfilled -- in addition to those projects, the 2018 Winter Games will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

More from Rogge's 2001 manifesto:

The role of the individual IOC members, he wrote, must be "redefined" and "strengthened," each member "constantly kept informed and consulted," the sessions themselves "more interactive and [allowing] for debates on the fundamental subjects of Olympism."

One of the Salt Lake reforms is that the sessions are televised on closed-circuit TV. The Mexico City session in 2002 erupted in full-on debate on the nature of the sports on the Summer Games program. Since then, Rogge and the policy-making executive board have largely run the show and the sessions have for the most part consisted of the dry recitation of reports read to the members.

This, too, from the 2001 Rogge manifesto:

"The IOC could make better use of the high potential of its members, who are its ambassadors and who must be given material and financial backing for this task where required. The President and the members must remain volunteers."

Just a couple days ago, Rogge suggested in an interview with a German newspaper that the IOC president ought to be paid.

The point of bringing up his 2001 manifesto now is not to call out the president. People are entitled to change their minds, especially after 12 years on the job.

There are challenges galore with the notion of having a paid president -- as the U.S. Olympic Committee found out a few years ago when it made a board member, Stephanie Streeter, its paid chief executive officer. To make a long story short, it didn't work out.

The point of bringing up what the president thought about the matter in 2001, now, is this:

Rogge's 2001 manifesto was not circulated then except within the club. It is marked "confidential."

Perhaps it could be said then but it is certainly the case now -- in 2013, the business of the IOC is too important to remain a matter for just the members to debate among themselves. Yes, the IOC is a club. But it is so much more.

Moreover, there is a sense among many that the IOC is, in many ways, at a crossroads. Whoever is the next president takes over an organization with multiple challenges -- starting with Sochi and Rio, doping and betting, the make-up of the sports on the program and going from there -- and his vision ought to be out there, for everyone to know and understand.

Leadership is measured by accountability. Trust is rooted in transparency. The IOC is better when it truly pays heed to the values it purports to stand for.

That's why this should be a no-brainer.

A CNN campaign-style debate? That's probably a step too far.

But the manifestos will make for excellent reading. No one should have anything to be afraid of. Indeed, the candidates who get it, who understand where the movement is now and where it needs to go, would want their visions published. For everyone to see.

The Samaranch legacy -- still "amazing"

TIANJIN, China -- The past, present and future of the International Olympic Committee intersected here Sunday in this northern China port city of 13 million people. Exactly three years to the day after he passed away, the Juan Antonio Samaranch Memorial Museum was dedicated, its 16,578 pieces on rich display to tell the story of the former IOC president's unparalleled impact on the modern Olympic movement.

Misunderstood by so many in the American and British press but beloved by so many within the Olympic movement, and particularly in China, the ceremony attracted nearly a fourth of the current IOC membership as well as a crowd of more than 300 leading sports figures, personalities and dignitaries from all four corners of the world.

"Dear friends," the current IOC president, Jacque Rogge, said in inaugurating the museum, "we know what we all owe to Juan Antonio Samaranch.

"If our movement is today strong and united, it is thanks to his visionary qualities and extraordinary talent. His knowledge of the world of sport and his deep attachment to the Olympic values were unquestionable. Juan Antonio Samaranch left us a great legacy that we must conserve and perpetuate. This memorial is the greatest homage we can pay to him."

That, and the business at hand Saturday night in the lobby of the Renaissance Hotel in Tianjin, because as Samaranch always understood, the business of the Olympic movement is relationships, and with so much at stake this historic election year, the scene in the lobby served as an intriguing prelude of what's to come.

This was, to be candid, a power get-together. Samaranch would have loved it.

At the IOC's session in Buenos Aires in September, the IOC will elect a new president; decide the 2020 Summer Games site (Madrid, Tokyo and Istanbul are in the race); and perhaps make changes to the Summer Games program (as of now, wrestling, baseball and softball and other sports are in the mix).

This museum dedication drew together a clutch of those often mentioned as potential presidential candidates -- nothing being official because nothing is allowed yet to be official, but in alphabetical order: Thomas Bach of Germany, Sergei Bubka of Ukraine, Richard Carrión of Puerto Rico, Ser Miang Ng of Singapore, C.K. Wu of Chinese Taipei.

Bach and Ng are IOC vice presidents.

Bach is a gold medal-wining fencer turned lawyer who for years has been a senior IOC presence. Ng, a businessman and diplomat, oversaw the enormously successful 2010 Youth Games.

Carrión, a banker, has negotiated the IOC's most complex television deals; he had served on the IOC's policy-making executive board until just last year.

Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. of Spain, was here, naturally, along with his sister, Maria Teresa, and some of their extended family; he now sits on the IOC EB.

So does Bubka, the former pole vaulter, now a mainstay in track and field and IOC politics.

So, too, Wu, an architect who sparked the construction of the museum. An IOC member since 1988, he is now president of the international boxing federation, which goes by the acronym AIBA.

Also here: Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah of Kuwait, head of the Assn. of National Olympic Committees and the Olympic Council of Asia.

To be precise, this dedication attracted 24 IOC members (out of 101); four honorary members; and eight international federation presidents.

Those numbers are all the more remarkable because the IOC is staging a major assembly in just a couple days in Lima, Peru, the 15th "World Conference on Sport for All." It is testament to the elder Samaranch's hold on the imagination that so many opted to come here.

"His wisdom and genius inspired all those who loved the Olympics," Wu said in his speech Sunday.

Wu and Samaranch shared an interest in collecting, and before his death Samaranch donated his lifelong collection to Wu, who had become a good friend. It includes books, stamps, souvenirs, paintings, letters, photographs, personal items, manuscripts and texts on Olympic-related themes.

Samaranch went to the Chinese mainland authorities in December, 1987, to express his intention to nominate Wu for IOC membership at the session in Calgary in February, 1988. In those days, the relationship between Beijing and Taiwan was sensitive, indeed.

Wu went on to be elected without opposition at that Calgary session. He said here: "I really appreciate what he has done for me. He has changed the entirety of my life. I might still be working as an architect in my profession. After this, it totally changed my life. Now -- I want to build a museum. In Chinese, we say, when you drink water, you always think of who gave you the water. This is an important philosophy."

The project broke ground in 2011 -- 205,000 square feet, in all, amid a park 45 minutes from central Tianjin. But construction really got underway only last July, finishing for good just before Sunday's formal opening. The project, which cost $61 million, was largely financed by the Tianjin municipal government.

The project required express approval by various branches of the Chinese national government -- the first time it had granted such OK to a memorial for a foreign figure, evidence again of Samaranch's stature here.

Why Tianjin? Why, for that matter, China for such a memorial? Because Samaranch visited China many times and believed powerfully in the possibilities of the movement here. Indeed, it was at his final IOC session -- in Moscow in 2001 -- that Beijing was selected as site of the 2008 Games.

Just a few days later, Rogge was picked as Samaranch's successor. The museum shows a picture of the two men shaking hands on that day.

Time keeps turning. Buenos Aires nears. It is three years already, and yet Samaranch's influence on the movement is still considerable.

"He was a real human being, with big passion, who loved sport," Bubka said Sunday afternoon, adding a moment later, "His legacy is -- amazing."