The winner will receive an eight-year mandate and will be responsible for key issues such as guiding the Olympics smoothly in both politics and sports towards the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles and selecting a host for the 2036 edition. This could potentially go to India or the Middle East for the first time.

About 100 eligible IOC members will vote, with the proceedings scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. local time (1400 GMT). The result is expected to be announced within 30 minutes.

Seven IOC members are on the ballot, competing for an absolute majority of votes for victory at a resort hotel near the site of Ancient Olympia.

Among the strongest candidates are IOC vice president Juan Antonio Samaranch and two-time Olympic gold medalists Sebastian Coe and Kirsty Coventry.

Also in the running are Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan and three presidents of sports governing bodies: Johan Eliasch of skiing, David Lappartient of cycling, and Morinari Watanabe of gymnastics.

Coventry, the sports minister of Zimbabwe, would be the first woman and the first African to lead the IOC.

“Let’s create some change, let’s ensure that happens,” she remarked.

Coventry has been seen as the preferred successor to outgoing president Thomas Bach, who will formally leave office on Olympic Day, June 23, having reached the maximum 12 years in office.

Bach was feted on the first day of the IOC’s annual meeting and received the title of honorary president for life.

He will be leaving behind a financially secure IOC, with more than $8 billion in expected revenue from the 2028 LA Olympics and a list of future hosts through 2034: in Italy, the United States, France, Australia, and the U.S. again, when the Winter Games return to Salt Lake City.

Bach’s signature policy has been gender parity, with equal quotas of female and male athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics and a better balance of female members of the IOC and its executive board.

The next president will have the opportunity to make a statement choice for hosting the 2036 Summer Games.

Samaranch noted that there is one specific challenge ahead, stating that the main focus must be on the successful and relevant Olympic Games.

If the Spanish financier wins, he will follow in the footsteps of his father, who was the IOC’s seventh president from 1980 to 2001.

IOC members, which include royalty, former lawmakers and diplomats, business leaders, sports officials, Olympic athletes, and even an Oscar-winning actress, Michelle Yeoh, will vote without hearing further presentations from the candidates.

Thursday’s election will likely be influenced by a discreet network of friendships and alliances largely formed out of sight.