The IOC's first female president?

ABU DHABI -- Here is one measure of how far the cause of women in sports has come:

They held a news conference here Tuesday at the Emirates Palace hotel in advance of Wednesday's Laureus awards. The dais, from right to left: Edwin Moses, the incomparable 400-meter hurdles champion from the 1970s and 1980s who is now chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy chairman; Mohammed Ibrahim Al Mahmood, general secretary of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council; and Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco, the 1984 Los Angeles Games women's 400-meter hurdles champion who over the past dozen years has become one of the most influential leaders within the International Olympic Committee.

Here is one measure of how far the cause of women in sports has yet to go:

"In Abu Dhabi," the Laureus organizers cautioned in inviting the members of the press to a photo op at the hotel's soccer field (it's the Gulf - the hotel, $3 billion to build, has its own FIFA-caliber field), "it is not generally accepted that photos are taken of women or girls.

"Press should not ask any female students for individual or close-up photos. Ideally, girls should not be featured at all in shots or footage other than in distance shots."

Obviously, there has been real progress since 1984, when El Moutawakel became the first female Olympic champion from an Islamic nation. Obviously, too, there is yet a great distance to go.

Which raises a most intriguing question:

What if El Moutawakel were the next president of the IOC?

Admittedly, the question is hypothetical and speculative.

But speculation is what we in the press get to do.

And the idea that El Moutawakel could be president is not far-fetched.

The list of those thought likely to consider the post -- due to open in 2013, when the current president, Jacques Rogge, fulfills his term -- would include current IOC vice president Thomas Bach of Germany as well as Sergei Bubka of the Ukraine and Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico.

The number and significance of the variables in play between now and 2013 is clearly not now knowable. Just one example: Munich is in the running for the 2018 Winter Games. Those Games will be awarded in 2011. Would the IOC give Munich the Games and then two years later give the presidency, too, to someone from Germany?

No one can answer that now with any certainty -- just as it's impossible to predict whether the IOC would elect its first female president.

But El Moutawakel is certainly positioned, were she inclined, to make a run.

The Rogge years have seen the IOC make dramatic breaks with certain traditions. China in 2008, for instance. Rio in 2016.

A tradition that remains strong, however, is this: The chairperson of what's called the coordination commission for the Summer Games automatically assumes a most important role within the IOC. Before he was elected president, for instance, Rogge served as chair of both the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Games -- in effect the IOC's chief link to Games organizers.

Denis Oswald of Switzerland is the London 2012 chair.

The Rio 2016 chair? El Moutawakel.

In recent years, El Moutawakel has served as chair of the IOC committees that evaluated the cities bidding for the 2012 and 2016 Games, a complex role she handled deftly. Her professional career has involved senior spots in both government and sports. She speaks Arabic, French and English (she went to college in the United States, at Iowa State).

She has long been a forceful advocate for the Olympic movement, and for the role of women in sport.

The way you get things done within the Olympic scene is to see and be seen -- to go to events such as these, in places such as this. El Moutawakel does that a lot, and well. She was honored Wednesday at the awards show with Laureus' "lifetime achievement award," and she's only 47.

You never know with the IOC but watching El Moutawakel on the dais with Moses and Al Mahmood, it was easy to imagine what might be. The symbolism should she be elected president? Unmatched.

"I recall," she said in a quiet moment afterward, "when I first ran, barefoot -- and where I am today. I didn't even have money to buy milk to have vitamins for my dinner.

"Sport opens up so many horizons in our lives. It's our role to give back."