The race for the most powerful post in sports, the presidency of the International Olympic Committee, already enveloped in the secrecy and byzantine regulations of a 130-year-old club, has become stranger — and much nastier — as decision day looms.
Smear campaigns have targeted some of the leading contenders in the final days before the vote, scheduled for Thursday in Costa Navarino, Greece. This past weekend, social media posts and little-known websites spread lurid claims of previous actions by two of the candidates, without providing evidence or citing sources — suggestions of personal wrongdoing serious enough to sink their campaigns. Neither the I.O.C. nor the candidates have commented publicly, but the allegations became grist for gossip at the I.O.C. gathering.
A few days earlier, an anonymous author emailed a complaint, reviewed by The New York Times, to the I.O.C.’s chief ethics official, outlining a different set of allegations — a string of potential campaign rule breaches — without naming particular candidates. The complaint was detailed enough to rattle the campaigns and the committee’s staff.
An I.O.C. spokesman said on Wednesday that the questions raised in the email had been looked into, and were fairly routine matters.
Some officials, along with candidates’ aides, have dismissed the online and email allegations as disinformation campaigns of the kind the Olympics have faced in recent years. But the sensational claims and targeting of individuals have created deep unease around the election of a new leader.
The winner will immediately be thrust into managing the sports movement’s relationship with a convulsing world, in which old certainties and alliances are no longer guaranteed. One of the first ports of call for the new president will be the Trump White House, ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The new leader will need to manage the relationship with the Russian Olympic Committee, banned from the Paris Games last summer over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and earlier banned from several Olympics for systematic doping. There are also the challenges of a volatile and politically sensitive discussion about transgender athletes, and of maintaining the relevance of the Olympic movement in a fast-changing world.
But the role also confers great status — the winner will be recognized globally and courted by world leaders.
Given those stakes, the last hours until the vote have been a frenzy of quiet politicking, with almost the entire Olympic movement at a Greek luxury beach resort, ahead of a vote that is likely to go through several rounds before a majority of the I.O.C. coalesces behind any of the seven candidates.
“I don’t know if we will win or lose votes, but I can promise you that I will be working until the very last second, until 3:59:59 tomorrow afternoon,” said Juan Antonio Samaranch, a Spaniard who is widely seen as a top contender. His father led the I.O.C for two decades, through 2001, and shaped much of what it has become.
Another leading candidate, Sebastian Coe of Britain, was all smiles as he circulated among I.O.C. members on Wednesday. “I’m in good shape but it’s only lunchtime,” he told reporters.
Amid the fervor to get the upper hand, a campaign that had been genteel has become much harsher and more personal.
Many of the attacks have been anonymous or private, but not all. The Sunday Times of London this week published a profile of Mr. Samaranch with a headline calling him “Fascist’s son and friend of China.” His father supported the long-ago Franco dictatorship, and two Chinese I.O.C. members are on the board of a foundation named for the elder Mr. Samaranch.
The campaign of one of his rivals, Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, has been dogged by claims that the outgoing leader, Thomas Bach, has been secretly canvassing on her behalf — a breach of etiquette, if not of the rules. Ms. Coventry, a gold medal-winning former swimmer, is the only woman in the field.
Mr. Bach refused to answer directly a question about his involvement, at a news conference on Monday. After 12 years at the helm, he is ineligible to run again.
Perhaps the best-known contender is Mr. Coe, a gold medal-winning former track star, former member of Parliament and lead organizer of London’s successful 2012 Olympics. He has also been the most vocally critical of Russia.
Mr. Coe has been criticized for seeking advice from Andy Coulson, a political operative and former editor who was jailed in connection with a major phone-hacking scandal that led to the closure of Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper. “We’ve been delighted to help Seb with his manifesto,” Mr. Coulson said in a message.
Other candidates include Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein, a brother of Jordan’s king; and Johan Eliasch, chairman of the sporting goods company Head and president of the International Ski and Snowboard.
It is unclear what would happen should election violations be uncovered with the election so close. Ban-Ki Moon, the former U.N. Secretary-General, who heads the I.O.C. ’s ethics commission, told The New York Times in a brief conversation that his group was looking into “maybe two” complaints before shrugging and saying, “but the election is tomorrow.”