Olympics-IOC candidate Coe says he should have handled prize money issue differently

By Karolos Grohmann

BERLIN (Reuters) - World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, a candidate for president of the International Olympic Committee, said on Thursday his decision to offer prize money to Paris 2024 Olympic champions of his sport should have been handled differently.

World Athletics announced its prize money decision unilaterally ahead of last year's Paris Games without consulting either the IOC, of which Coe is a member, or other international sports federations.

The decision angered the IOC and some federations which opposed such a move, saying not all athletes were benefiting from it. World Athletics has said it will offer prize money to all medallists in the sport at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

"We made the judgement about prize money because we felt it was in the best interest of our sport," Coe told an online media round table. "In hindsight I should have done it differently and I am ready to hold my hands up.

"I did apologise (to other Olympic sports federations). Not about the prize money ... but in hindsight I would have done it a different way."

The Briton was speaking hours ahead of Thursday's 15-minute presentation of each presidential candidate to IOC members in Lausanne. The Olympic body will elect its new president -- the most powerful job in world sport -- on March 20 in Greece.

Coe is up against multiple Olympic swimming champion Kirsty Coventry, who is Zimbabwe's sports minister, as well as Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch, son of the late former IOC president.

International cycling chief David Lappartient, Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, International Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe and Olympic newcomer and multimillionaire Johan Eliasch, who heads the International Ski Federation, complete the candidates' lineup.

Coe said if elected he would involve members more and not just within the powerful executive board. Under current president Thomas Bach it is the executive board which takes most key decisions, with the members all but rubber-stamping them.

Under Bach's 12-year rule all but one of the decisions were unanimous.

"Everywhere. Absolutely everywhere," Coe said on where he would involve members. "At the moment we don't have the structures to get the best out of some very smart people.

"There is not a global board that would not take some people sitting beside me in that room. People that are far smarter than me."

Coe said that of the 100-plus members, which include entrepreneurs, billionaires, athletes and royalty amongst others, his own research showed 38% were Olympians, 33% had solid business careers, while 11% had held top government jobs in their countries.

"We are sitting there with an asset that I think is at best untapped, at worst neglected. No organisation can sit with that kind of talent on the backbenches," Coe said.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)