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.