Thomas Bach announced Saturday that he will step down from his role as president of the International Committee (IOC) after his second term concludes next year, putting to rest rumors that he might extend his tenure beyond the two-term limit.
Some IOC members suggested that the 70-year-old Bach seek a waiver to the IOC’s term limit — a first eight-year term and a second four-year term, according to the charter that Bach helped write — but the 1976 Olympic fencing champion from Germany claimed the organization would be “best served with a change in leadership.”
“As a result of deep deliberations and extensive discussions, I have come to the conclusion that I should not have my mandate extended beyond the limits stipulated in the Olympic Charter,” Bach said on the second-to-last day of the Paris Olympics. “In order to safeguard the credibility of the IOC we all… have to respect the high standards of good governance which we have set for ourselves. New times are calling for new leaders.”
Bach’s replacement is expected to be elected next March in Athens before officially taking over in June of 2025.
Bach is on track to leave the IOC with its future stable, having secured $7.3 billion for the years 2025-28 and $6.2 billion for 2029-32. Olympic host cities are also lined up for the next decade: Milano Cortina (Italy) 2026, Los Angeles 2028, French Alps 2030, Brisbane 2032, and Salt Lake City 2034. The awarding of two Olympics at the same time — with both Paris and Los Angeles announced in 2017 and the Winter Games in the French Alps and Salt Lake City revealed last month — was an unprecedented move that appears to be paying off.
However, Bach was not without his critics. When a Russian doping scandal erupted following the 2014 Olympics, he went against the blanket-ban recommendation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and allowed each sports federation to decide which Russian athletes could compete at Rio 2016. That came just a few years after Russian president Vladimir Putin was the first person to congratulate Bach by phone mere seconds after his election in 2013.
Bach also navigated the IOC through the COVID-19 pandemic, postponing the Tokyo Olympics until 2021 despite calls to cancel the Summer Games altogether. One poll from early 2021 showed about 80% of Japanese people in support of postponing further or canceling the event.
Just last month, Bach threatened Salt Lake City’s hosting rights for 2034 over a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into a Chinese doping controversy involving swimmers in 2021. Bach has stood by WADA, defending the global anti-doping authority’s decision to clear 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance due to environmental contamination from their hotel kitchen.
ROC absolutely devastated.
Sebastian Coe is the best choice for that role. He might even introduce repechage swims after opening heats. That would work a heck of a lot better in swimming than track and field, where it was popular with viewers and produced entertaining races, but only Freddie Crittenden managed to take advantage and advance to the final.
Gosh of all the major issues with Bach & the Olympic movement right now; like exorbitant hosting costs, member nations accountability of doping, competition judging & accuracy, and most importantly trust of the movement itself…you pick a non-issue anti-particpation transphobic statement? Smh. What about all the ‘fake men’? Stay out of people’s DNA passports and let the science experts handle it.
Haha. The end all be all for conservatives was always: You’re assigned your gender at birth! If you have a 🍆 then you’re a man, if you have a🐱then you’re a woman!
So here we have a person who was:
1. Assigned female at birth.
2. Lived her whole life as female.
3. Competed her entire career as female.
4. During said career, lost to many different women many times.
But now since she looks “manly” conservatives are in an uproar saying she has XY chromosomes. And “not a real woman.”
So I’m confused now, do conservatives acknowledge now that gender is not always black and white? AKA what your assigned at birth? Or do… Read more »
Go find a new job in Russia. You won’t be missed.
He can replace Gerasimov who should be trying to avoid open windows and tea right now.
Having to watch athletes swim in a flowing cesspool should drive any IOC President into retirement.
Was it his choice to hold the open water events – 10K and triathlon – in the Seine? If so, good riddance.
Good, but I have a feeling he wouldn’t run unless he has a predecessor he was fairly confident would win. Let’s hope the less corrupt members ban together on a candidate and have the guts to follow through. I don’t care what nation they are from as long as they can help the movement regain respect, consistency, and most importantly, trust.
‘Less corrupt members’
I needed a laugh tonight