GENEVA — Olympic leader Kirsty Coventry said Wednesday she is yet to have formal contact with U.S. President Trump’s administration but is looking forward to meeting Vice President J.D. Vance in Milan next month at the Winter Games opening ceremony.
The International Olympic Committee’s first female president was elected 10 months ago and her first meeting with Mr. Trump is much anticipated in the sports world ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games.
The IOC and organizers in LA face diplomatic challenges in the next 2 ½ years with more than 200 national teams due to compete, including dozens whose fans and sports officials currently face visa bans or travel restrictions.
“We have not had any formal communication just yet with the White House,” she told reporters in an online call before she travels next week to the Milan Cortina Winter Games that open Feb. 6.
The IOC president spoke in Lausanne while Mr. Trump also was in Switzerland, about 150 miles away, preparing to address world leaders in Davos.
She said, “We have seen the formal announcement” from the White House at the weekend about the U.S. delegation coming to Milan for the opening ceremony. Also expected are second lady Usha Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“We look forward to meeting the vice president and his team that will be with him,” the IOC president said.
Her first Olympics as the head of the IOC approaches with Mr. Trump’s push to acquire Greenland from Denmark, a traditional ally, dominating the news agenda.
“It is not within our remit to comment on sovereignty and political conversations,” the IOC leader said. “We are a sport organization.”
Real world issues typically intrude on each modern Olympic Games, despite the IOC’s statutory duty to be politically neutral. Four years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Games, and began a full invasion of Ukraine four days after the closing ceremony, breaching the Olympic Truce.
Former IOC President Thomas Bach used his keynote speech on the eve of the 2024 Paris Summer Games to warn of threats to the multilateral order in place for 80 years, and in which the IOC had forged closer ties to the United Nations.
“We are witnessing a new world order in the making,” he cautioned in Paris 18 months ago, to an audience that included French president Emmanuel Macron, and highlighted among the threats “narrow self-interests trumping the rule of law.”
Asked Wednesday if she was “envious” of the bond FIFA leader Gianni Infantino forged with Mr. Trump ahead of the 2026 World Cup in men’s soccer, the IOC president said she is optimistic.
“Hopefully, as we get closer to the (Los Angeles) games, we will see relations continue and — as they have been with the IOC, with the Olympics movement in the United States - only getting stronger,” she said.
Organizers of the LA Olympics are due in Milan in two weeks’ time to update IOC members on their plans.
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