Thomas Bach has been President of the IOC since 2013. The Tauberbischofsheimer, who died on December 29th. celebrates his 70th birthday, is criticized, especially in his homeland, for his policy in dealing with Russia. In the IOC they want him to continue.
Suddenly Thomas Bach is gone. “I entered the German network”says Bach and audibly smiles when the telephone connection is restored. Bach is on the way from Lausanne, where the IOC is based, to his homeland. When Thomas Bach celebrates his 70th birthday on December 29th, then “In the closest family circle. We will celebrate it with a good Franconian-style dinner with a good glass of wine. And that’s it.” He won’t be available that day, but he will “play sports happily”says Bach. He feels fit: “I’ve managed to lose a lot of weight recently through exercise and some changes in my diet and I’m feeling pretty good about it.”
Gain endurance and speaking time with power walking
No tennis, no football like before: “Today it is more like that Power walking in the mountains. I then try hiking routes there that are excellent, let’s say five hours long, I try to do them in two and a half to three hours, that demands and gives a lot of stamina.” Bach has to use the time saved to get involved “the growing number” to speak of IOC members trying to persuade him to continue. Although the Olympic Charter limits the presidential term to a maximum of twelve years. Bach was elected in 2013 and re-elected in 2021. His presidency ends in 2025. Since some members encouraged Bach to continue at the IOC session in Mumbai in October, there has been speculation. Bach is currently avoiding a clear rejection: “It is out of respect for my IOC colleagues that I talk to them about it.” But he also made it clear to everyone from the start how loyal he was to the Olympic Charter. That is the justification with which he could end all discussions.
But there is also the other side of Bach, which goes like this: “Humanly, I think people will understand that I find this situation more pleasant than if there were an atmosphere where everyone was just waiting for the moment when the old man would finally leave.” In order to change the existing rule, a two-thirds majority of the general assembly would be required in the IOC.
That will be a turning point, of course. But I think that after a period of rest, new, interesting activities outside of sports or elsewhere will also present themselves.
Thomas Bach, IOC President
Letting go of the office of IOC president – “wouldn’t be difficult for me”
It is conceivable that Bach will explain to every single IOC member who asks him to continue why he is not continuing. Bach himself worked on the rule change to limit the president’s term of office in 1999. But can he actually let go? “I don’t think it would be difficult for me because I prepared for it. The terms were clear.” And then Bach says another sentence that sounds as if he will stick to the rule and leave his presidential office Olympic House clear at Lake Geneva: “It will be a turning point, of course. But I think that after a period of rest, new, interesting activities outside of sport or elsewhere will be offered. We have to see all of that. There are no fixed plans there.”
Double award for the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games
He had clear plans for the International Olympic Committee. Bach reformed the IOC with two profound programs. Agenda 2020 and Agenda 2020+5 are timed to be completed in 2025. From the IOC’s perspective, the future is secured well into the 1930s. Lucrative sponsorship and TV contracts are closed until 2032. The summer Olympic Games are scheduled to run until 2032, and there are candidate cities for 2036 and 2040 – Germany is also considering an application again. At the beginning of December, the IOC executive also discussed awarding the 2030 Winter Olympics to France and 2034 Salt Lake City (USA) and with Switzerland to hold preferential talks for 2038. Only the general meeting of the IOC has to vote on this.
Paris 2024 with as many women as men and the Olympic Refugee team
At the Games in Paris there will be gender equality for the first time, with as many female athletes as male athletes. During Bach’s tenure, the proportion of women in the IOC more than doubled. Be on the IOC commissions “Even a few more positions are occupied by women than by men”, emphasizes Bach. After 2016 and 2021 there will be another “Olympic Refugee Team” will be at the start with athletes who had to flee their homeland.
Bach: “Don’t punish athletes for their government’s actions”
Since Bach was elected as the youngest IOC member at the time in 1991 at the age of 38, he has been an official at the Olympic Games 18 times. He took part once himself and won the gold medal with the team in fencing in 1976. In 1980 the boycott prevented further participation. In the middle of the Cold War, the government of the Federal Republic decided not to send athletes to Moscow, as the USA had recently ordered. Bach’s sports policy was therefore always aimed at “that athletes should not and cannot be punished for acts of their government”.
The IOC followed this principle “since the unsuccessful boycotts at the beginning of the 80s and that has now become established”. That is why the IOC has suspended the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Russia, “because it claims parts of the territory of the Ukrainian NOC and thereby violates the Olympic Charter”said Bach. On the other hand, individual Russian athletes are allowed to take part – without their own anthem or flag, as neutral participants. Bach was criticized for this attitude, especially in his native Germany.
It’s been a long time since I’ve spoken to Chancellor Scholz
The relationship with Germany was already better. In 2006, Bach was the first president of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, the merger of the German Sports Confederation and the National Olympic Committee. Under his leadership, the merger was successful, but Munich’s bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics failed internationally. Shortly before the Games in Tokyo 2021, Bach intervened in the leadership crisis at the DOSB surrounding his successor there, Alfons Hörmann, who blamed the IOC for the early award of the award Brisbane was criticized for the 2032 Olympic Games and thus prevented a German Olympic bid for this edition.
There is currently at least discussion about the Olympic Games in Germany, for 2036 or 2040. But also specifically about holding the bobsleigh and luge competitions in 2026, because the track in Italy Cesana cannot be used for the Winter Games in just over two years. But Germany is out of the question, Bach said in an interview with “Welt am Sonntag,” because the federal government does not allow Russian and Belarusian activists to enter the country. He last spoke about this with Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the G20 summit in 2022, after which the thread of the conversation broke.
Some advice from Mandela would be helpful
So it’s not because of the German mobile phone network that Scholz and Bach haven’t talked to each other yet. Bach recently said that as IOC president you can almost choose who you talk to. But he would like to continue a conversation with Nelson Mandela, said Bach. The South African freedom fighter and later president of his country was imprisoned for 27 years. As soon as he was released, he put himself at the forefront of Cape Town’s 2004 Olympic bid and traveled to Lausanne and had to congratulate Athens for getting the 2004 Games. At that time, Bach was chairman of the commission that surveyed and assessed all applicant cities. Mandela, who spoke about the unifying power of sport at the time, died in 2013. At the end of our telephone conversation, I would like to know what Thomas Bach would discuss with Nelson Mandela. “It would be of great interest to know how he sees this unifying power of sport, especially now, in this time marked by so many tensions, wars and crises.”
Broadcast on Friday, December 29th, 2023 at 6:00 a.m., SWR Aktuell in the morning, SWR Aktuell
More about the IOC
