AMMAN, 11 NOVEMBER 2024 (INSIDE THE GAMES)—An overview of the former military helicopter pilot, current president of the Jordan Olympic Committee (JOC) and next king in line, Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein, and his devotion to seeing sport embrace its unique power as a vehicle for change.
As incumbent International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach nears the end of his 12 years at the helm, seven candidates are up for election to replace him set to be decided during the 143rd IOC session taking place between 18 and 21 March 2025.
Among them are leading figures in the sporting world; namely World Athletics head, Lord Sebastian Coe, President of both the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), David Lappartient, chair for the 2022 Beijing Games and son of former IOC President, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., International Federation of Gymnastics (IFG) President Morinari Watanabe, businessman and International Ski Federation (FIS) chief, Johan Eliasch, and double Olympic gold medallist and Zimbabwe’s Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry.
Finally, there is Prince Faisal Al Hussein. While Coventry bids to become the first woman and first African to head the IOC in its 130-year history if elected, Al Hussein joins Watanabe as the potential first IOC President to reign from Asia as well as the first member of a royal family.
Royalty raised abroad and made in the military
Born in Jordan’s capital of Amman, Faisal Al Hussein is the younger brother of the King of Jordan, Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and one of former King Hussein bin Talal’s 12 children. His mother, bin Talal’s second wife, is British and changed her name from Toni Gardiner to Muna Al Hussein during her marriage to the former king.
Aged 7, Faisal was sent to England to St. Edmund’s School in Surrey before moving to the United States where he was schooled in Massachusetts and then in 1978, began high school in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Brown University in 1985 with a ScB degree in electrical engineering and then a master’s degree in management from the London Business School in 1988.
It was during his years at university that the prince first gained military experience receiving helicopter training with the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) and with the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force. Beginning as a Staff Officer in the RJAF in 1981, he worked his way up through various positions including Squadron Commander, Brigadier General, Assistant for Operations and Air Defence, Major General and Commander of the RJAF, according to Olympics.com. He was then made Lieutenant General and the Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2004 until retiring from the Royal Jordanian Army at the end of 2017. He has been the Chair of Jordan’s National Policy Council since 2018.
Having often acted as regent during his brother’s trips abroad, he was officially sworn in as deputy king in late June of this year.
Sporting background, Olympic ties, and activism
His Olympics profile cites football, volleyball, wrestling, and motor sports among his favoured sports. He was a wrestling gold medallist in the US Interstate Championships in 1978 and a co-driver in the Jordan Rally for three years from 1985 to 1988 which set in motion a passionate dedication to the sport and its international future in Jordan.
He was first elected as President of Jordan’s Olympic Committee in 2003 and was again re-elected in 2022, days after he was anointed deputy king. An IOC member since 2010, Prince Faisal was then elected to the IOC Executive Board in 2019.
During this time, he attempted to propel Jordanian sports and built the Jordan Olympic Academy in Amman in 2023 to offer accredited programmes and projects in sports management while providing state-of-the-art training and Olympic education to Jordanian athletes.
Prince Faisal has consistently spoken out about preventing harassment in sports and has chaired groups focused on actively cracking down on its roots as a part of preserving the Olympic legacy. “Although sport is inherently good, with many wonderful benefits, there are elements of sporting culture that may perpetuate or mask harassment and abuse,” he said at the New Leaders Forum in Helsinki in 2019.
“To truly safeguard athlete welfare, we must ensure that policies and procedures are implemented effectively across the board,” he stressed. “Sports organisations share an enormous cultural power to demonstrate leadership in this important subject area. We must all strive to ensure that safe sports environments are universal and considered a fundamental right of all persons involved.”
As a member of the IOC’s Women and Sport Commission since 2006 and Chairman of the Olympic Council of Asia’s (OCA) Peace Through Sport Committee, Prince Faisal has also previously spoken out about sport’s unique role in peace-building saying “The unique power of sport has so much more to offer than just the inherent benefits of participation – important as they are. Sport’s convening power, when teams and clubs become ready-made peer groups, makes it a vitally important entry-point and vehicle for behaviour change in individuals and communities.”
Generations for Peace
His drive for peace and prosperity can perhaps best be appreciated in Generations For Peace, the non-profit peace-building organisation that he founded alongside his ex-wife Sarah Kabbani which he has used to support and train leaders of youth from conflicted communities.
Founded in 2007, the organisation is “dedicated to sustainable conflict transformation at the grassroots, Generations For Peace empowers volunteer leaders of youth to promote active tolerance and responsible citizenship in communities experiencing different forms of conflict and violence,” according to its website.
“Our Generations for Peace curriculum is one attempt to provide the principles, the skills and the tools which our pioneers need and demand to allow them to integrate education on conflict resolution and peacebuilding,” Prince Faisal said the year it was launched. “The challenge for all of us is to better integrate processes to measure and articulate the impact, efficiency, and sustainability of sport for peace and development programmes.”
While the prince and JOC president may not boast a sporting record as decorated as other candidates, his drive and determination to use sport as a means of encouraging sustainability and peace certainly aligns with the IOC’s own ambitions.
“Let us work together, share, exchange, develop and cascade our range of best practices together. And let’s take another great leap forward in our mission to bring that sustainable peace to our world,” is Faisal’s main message. Words that should no-doubt resonate with every IOC Member when the time comes to pick between the seven candidates next year….PACNEWS