On March 20, a few hours or so drive from Olympia in Greece, members of the International Olympic Committee will vote for a new president of the movement.

Here's a reminder of the IOC's position against the politicisation of sport:

“Recognising that sport occurs within the framework of society, sports organisations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality. They have the rights and obligations of autonomy, which include freely establishing and controlling the rules of sport, determining the structure and governance of their organisations, enjoying the right of elections free from any outside influence and the responsibility for ensuring that principles of good governance be applied.”

So, March 20: Goodbye Thomas Bach, with so much that might have been achieved in various so-called "Vision" plans that failed to correct the mistakes and missteps of the past and even added more woe to the Olympic bill of health.

Hello... who? If genuine change is to flow, the candidate who stands out is Sebastian Coe: chronology on its head, he was/remains a leading organiser of the London 2012 Games, British peer and Olympic track champion of 1980 and 1984 as an athlete who knows what boycott looked like and meant for many, those who got to go to the Games and those who did not.

Add politician to our micro version of Coe's CV: he shares the status with other candidates - national, international and sporting varieties - vying for the top seat of a Movement that likes to tell us its apolitical but in fact, like so many other realms in life, is highly political in nature when it suits and folk have their eye on a Nobel Peace Prize, the very craving of which bars them from their ambition.

Yes, the call to athletes to keep politics out the field of play is often the right one, but is only credible if governors apply the same rule to themselves. History long and short screams: many of them did not and many of them do not, to this day.

The politics I'm talking about is far more understood than it is acknowledged on a spectrum of silence (omertà), passive aggression towards the key assets (athletes), which stretches to failing athletes on a number of key issues, including abuses of various kinds, physical, mental, leniency in anti-doping, twisted approaches to safe and fair play and, of course, through the on-the-record corruption that has unfolded - and for too long tolerated - down the years.

That tolerance is where, ultimately, the rubber hits the road, for while there will always be rogues, the closer to zero-tolerance the rules and their application get, the fewer rogues will find the loopholes they rely on for access to those they seek to profit from regardless of harms real and high-risk.

Look to the places where politics and commitments to zero-tolerance collide and you'll find plenty of challenges on the horizon for the IOC and its prevailing counter-intuitive culture of convenience. That's to say: you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, or you put on the Olympics at astronomical costs and keep the Olympic gravy train going and we'll look the other way on however many points of principle it takes.

If that sounds cynical, so be it. This is the world we now live in, with many more changes yet to unfold (look not to any opinion you see but the reality on the ground - and you can read similar in many places on what is just one of many major outcomes, a part of the tale that will see Europe's 'coalition of the willing' (so, with a nod to sport, not Orban and what may yet become a challenging Hungarian base of federations such as World Aquatics, which recently decided to switch HQ out of the neutrality of Switzerland) distance itself from the USA:

The US embrace of Russia is an existential threat to the EU. Germany must step up to save it | Catherine De Vries

To counter the crisis caused by Trump, Friedrich Merz has little choice but to abandon decades of military and economic caution

The GuardianCatherine De Vries

We entered the era of the transactional deal in 2025 as a former White House incumbent returned to the seat of American power that was once the seat of the free world but can no longer be viewed as such as we approach the 40 long days and nights since the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20.

Whatever anyone's general or even specific political views may be, there can be no doubting that Trump - and an administration that has the look, feel and tone of Team Gotham - have torched the USA's relationship with the 'west' and its traditional allies and relinquished its place as 'leader of the free world' in favour of treating Ukraine and its democratically elected President as pariahs who just need to do as their told and give up whatever it takes to put the smile back on the blood-soaked lips of Putin's Russia.

LINK:What a genuine peace process looks like: The response in one of many presentations outlining what Europe will do next

And all the while, neither Trump nor any in his entourage has offered a single serious word of criticism - let alone 'call out' - of the illegal invaders who have murdered and maimed the people of Ukraine, made migrants of millions and scorched their nation's infrastructure.

Today brought a Flickr of hope from across the Pond: the US President  said he is “strongly considering” imposing banking sanctions, other sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire and peace agreement is reached with Ukraine.

In a post on social media, he said:

Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely “pounding” Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED.

To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!

There are already numerous US sanctions on Russia, as he Guardian notes. It is not immediately clear if Trump wants to tighten existing sanctions or add new ones.

It also tells us nothing about how the U.S. will see the red lines drawn by Ukraine and its European allies, and how it will see the red lines drawn by Putin, which so far have clearly been scored across the page under a banner headline screaming "give me everything I want and tell Ukraine it can have nothing of what it wants - or no deal!" And, as above, "we'll keep flattening your country and murdering your citizens until we get what we want".

Up to now from Trump et al, it's been 'hand over mineral rights as a way to repay he USA', but not a single, transparent word on 'Vlad, when your troops have left the sovereign nation they have no right to be in, how do you intend to pay reparations for the damage you've done?' No, instead, Trump has given the distinct impression that he's happy to do deals with Vlad the Impaler of Ukrainians.

So, who thinks, what's all that politics got to do with the IOC and Olympic sport. Answer: everything. Why. A snapshot:

To anyone now tempted to scream '...but you can't make comparisons with H...', grab a pen or similar pointy object, stick it in the air and pop yourself out of your echo chamber for a moment while you read this from German investigative journalist Jens Weinreich, for whom  Zeitenwende is nothing new.

At a crossroads in olympic history. It is time to act.

The world is out of joint. So far, the fascist madness in the White House has had little direct impact on the Olympic system. But let’s not fool ourselves: what despots, billionaires, warmongers and Nazis do will also have a lasting impact on organized Olympic sport.

THE INQUISITORJens Weinreich

Stacked with insight and angles of relevance, the piece includes this highly pertinent reference when it comes to Putin and Russia's role as menace and pariah in the Olympic realm and the battle to keep the Games from becoming the freak show that every passing doping scandal of magnitude reminds us it has the capacity to become:

From The Inquisitor:

Let's not forget: the Trump family – in the person of Donald Trump Jr. as a partner in 1789 Capital – has already invested in a despicable competitor: Enhanced Games. Millions are said to have been invested in the “mission to build superhumanity”. A quote that could have come from Musk.

Trump Jr. was quoted as saying when the investment was announced: 

„The Enhanced Games represent the future – real competition, real freedom, and real records being smashed. This is about excellence, innovation, and American dominance on the world stage – something the MAGA movement is all about. The Enhanced Games are going to be huge, and I couldn’t be prouder to support this movement that is changing sports forever.“

This is certainly not the time to dismiss such a thing as unthinkable nonsense. It could become reality as early as tomorrow, with the next order from the self-proclaimed world record holder of Executive Orders.

Trump is not interested in the most important political and military alliances and treaties of the past decades, nor in culture and traditions. He destroys everything. Trump and his co-conspirators, who are also destroying America's democracy and completing a coup d'état, will certainly not care about any rules that shape international sport.

Who knows what atrocities of the apocalyptic DOGE riders will soon affect the sports business.

End of extract.

If Trump the Minor's quote is fakery and falsehood holding hands with soaring ignorance of and disrespect for the nature and high ideals of Olympic sport - let alone a slap in the face to every clean athlete - including generations of American high-achievers such as many of those who made the USA not only the World No 1 in swimming but are part of a thread of success that represents one of the biggest bull runs in world sport - then the last line is the one to keep an eye on.

As SpaceX rockets fall from the skies, sales of Tesla tumble in Germany and the rest of Europe and thousands of American's are removed from their jobs and livelihoods as owner of all that, Elon Musk dictates to inheres what he feels 'efficiency' looks like, the mood music from the U.S., including Trump family support for the Doping Games, begs the question: how long before the administration puts the plug on funding for the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)?

To Read the Editorial In Full: