Jordanian Olympic chief Prince Feisal on running for IOC presidency

Prince Feisal bin Al Hussein, President of the Jordan Olympic Committee, sat down with CGTN Sports Scene's Greg Laffradi in the latest episode of the program's Talk Sports series to discuss his presence at the Asian Winter Games in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, his campaign for International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidency, and the rapid growth of esports.

Jordan sent an alpine skier Sharif Zawaideh to participate in the men's slalom event at the Asian Winter Games in Harbin. Prince Feisal came to support him and play his part in the Olympic Council of Asia's (OCA's) sports movement.

Having been to China multiple times before to attend international sports programs, Prince Feisal was impressed by the country's passion for sports and its success of engaging over 300 million people in winter sports.

Prince Feisal has been running for the IOC president as one of the seven candidates. The incumbent ICO boss, Thomas Bach, said back in 2023 that there may be only 10 or so countries left able to host the Winter Olympics in 2040 because of climate change. Prince Feisal addressed this issue as part of his manifesto.

The Jordanian Olympic chief pointed out that climate change is a reality and not just a threat. Therefore, he suggested that the dates of the Olympic Games be shifted and expanded so that more countries can host it.

Prince Feisal revealed that he's a video gamer himself and he believes that including esports can help attract new attention to the Olympics. Though it's still too early to predict that esports will one day become a medal events at the Olympic Games, he doesn't want to rule out that possibility.