International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach will step down when his term expires in 2025.
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Indranil Mukherjee/AFP via Getty Images
PARIS — Thomas Bach, who has led the International Olympic Committee through a decade of controversy, rising national tensions and stunning sports, will step down at the end of his term in 2025.
The International Olympic Committee president announced on Saturday that he would not consider extending his term. Bach, a 70-year-old German, said in his speech that “a change of leadership would be most beneficial to the Olympic movement.”
The International Olympic Committee governs the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics, the world’s two largest international sports festivals. The Summer Olympics will conclude in Paris on Sunday.
Some IOC board members had urged Bach to seek an exemption from term limits and call for his resignation, but Bach rejected the idea on Saturday.
“To maintain the credibility of the IOC, we all… must respect the high standards of good governance that we have set for ourselves,” Bach said.
Bach took over as president of the International Olympic Committee in 2013.
Under his leadership, the International Olympic Committee allowed Russia to continue participating in the Olympics – although it did not fly the flag or play the national anthem – despite a doping scandal that erupted after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, left, and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach speak during Saturday’s men’s basketball gold medal game between France and the United States.
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He led the Olympic movement through the Summer and Winter Games that were disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Many critics believe these Olympics should be cancelled.
During this Summer Olympics, Bach threatened to cancel the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, scheduled for 2034, if the United States did not end its investigation and criminal investigation into the operations of the World Anti-Doping Agency. drug.
In a speech in Paris last month, Bach also sounded a warning about the future of the Olympic movement in an increasingly polarized world.
“Unfortunately, the trend is clear,” Bach said. “Economic decoupling and narrow self-interest trumping the rule of law. In this new world order, cooperation and compromise are sadly viewed as pejorative terms.”
Before serving as president of the International Olympic Committee, Bach competed in fencing at the 1976 Summer Olympics, where he won a gold medal.
The IOC is expected to vote in Athens next March to elect the organization’s new president, with Bach set to step down in June 2025. My best man” possible successor.”
