Prince Feisal Al Hussein: “We can contribute to building a more peaceful society”
LAUSANNE, March 6, 2025 – HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan says running for the most powerful post in world sport has made him a better person and strengthened his resolve to make a difference in the Olympic Movement regardless of the IOC presidential election outcome on 20 March.
“For me, campaigning has been fascinating. I have learned from people. I have listened to different views, different concerns, and each one of them had something different to contribute to the discussion. And I think I'm a better person as a result of that,” he said.
Prince Feisal, who is currently serving his second term on the IOC Executive Board, since being elected for the first time in 2019, was the special guest on the sixth episode of “Let’s Talk to the IOC Presidential Candidates” on 6 March.
In Thursday’s Q&A session, moderated by AIPS President Gianni Merlo, the younger brother of King Abdullah II fielded questions from journalists across different time zones for almost two hours, sharing his vision for the Olympic Movement, which he hopes to realise through consensual leadership. “I'm in it to win it and I think I can contribute to making the IOC a better place.”
Journalist from Kazakhstan Zarina Kozova asked a question about a balance between preserving the traditions of the Olympic Games and introducing modern trends such as new sports or digitalization.
There is a process right now that allows any host city to bring in traditional games that they're expected to to be able to support and provide for. There's also an opportunity for a host country to nominate up to five new sports that they think are very attractive and would generate a lot of interest. So in the past, we've had surfing, sport climbing, skateboarding. We've had a number of new sports that appeal to the youth and have generated a lot of interest. The challenge is we're trying to limit the number of sports on the programme to 28 plus up to five additional and we have to balance that also with the numbers of athletes that are competing otherwise you can very easily start growing and growing, and that puts an additional burden on hosting the Games. Right now the cap is around 10,500 athletes and I think it's useful to have that cap in place. So I think we have to balance the traditional versus the new. We've seen the success on 3x3 basketball for example. It's very exciting, very fast, and is a great showcase of talents and capabilities. Although we don't want to lose all the traditional games, we have to look at how do we balance it? There is a mechanism for IFs to become part of the 28 core sports and the flexibility exists for new sports to be allowed to come in, but just because they've come in one year doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be there in the future.
AIPS Media Kazakhstan
