Olympics committee boss Bach to step down, Coe considers bid
August 11, 2024
Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, has said he will not be seeking a third term. Among the candidates to replace him is World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe.
Advertisement
The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, has announced he will not be seeking to remain in charge for a third term.
"New times call for new leaders," the 70-year-old German lawyer told the 142nd general meeting of the IOC in Paris on Saturday night, ahead of the closure of the Olympic Games on Sunday.
"I know with this decision I am disappointing many of you," he told IOC members. "But it is in the best interests of our beloved Olympic movement."
Bach, an Olympic gold medalist in team fencing in 1976, has been IOC president since 2013 — the first ever Olympic champion to have been elected to the position.
An extension of his tenure into a third term and beyond 12 years would have entailed a change to the Olympic charter, something which Bach had considered doing as recently as the 141st IOC Session in Mumbai in October 2023.
But he has now decided against that, saying that, "at my age, I'm no longer the best captain," and that he had listened to "the opinion of my family."
Bach: Pushed sustainability but courted dictators
In his time in office, Bach has been credited with highlighting the importance of sustainability in bids for Summer and Winter Games with his "Olympic Agenda 2020." He enjoys widespread support from global federations who benefit from — and are dependent on — IOC funding. Under Bach, the IOC has prided itself on investing 90% of its revenues back into sport.
But the German has also faced criticism, especially in the West, for courting authoritarian rulers and dictators, among them Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in 2018 and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
"By announcing his retirement, Bach is taking a different approach to those ruling elites he is accused of being close to," commented Germany's Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper, reacting to the news.
"Because that is also part of his legacy: his familiar dealings with Putin, an inadequate investigation of Russian doping and his embarrassing cozying-up to Kim are big stains on his jacket."
IOC: Who could succeed Thomas Bach?
Having announced he will be stepping down, Bach's potential successors will begin jostling for position ahead of elections at the IOC's 143rd Session in Athens, Greece, in March 2025.
Some observers have tipped Zimbabwean former swimmer Kirsty Coventry (40) or Aruban former synchronized swimmer Nicole Hoevertsz (60) to become the IOC's first ever female president.
Another contender is likely to be World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, who potentially threw his hat into the ring on Sunday.
"I've always made it clear that, if the opportunity arose, I would give it serious thought," Coe said at a press conference wrapping up the Olympics athletics competition. "The opportunity has arisen, and clearly I need to think about it."
Advertisement
Coe: 'Involved in the Olympic movement for most of my life'
Lord Coe, a two-time British Olympic 1,500 meters champion and president of the 2012 London Olympics Organizing Committee, said his experience speaks for itself, but insisted that there are plenty of other qualified candidates.
"I have been involved in the Olympic movement for the larger part of my life," he said.
"I've chaired an Olympic Games from bids through delivery and two years of legacy after that. I've been privileged to compete in two Olympics Games, and I've chaired a National Olympic Committee, and I now have the best job in the world, I'm president of the No. 1 Olympic sport.
"These are experiences that if you put together, I think would be beneficial to the role. But there are other potential candidates who have good qualifications for that role."
At 67, Coe's age could be a disadvantage for an IOC which technically doesn't allow new members aged 70 and over and has spoken about needing an injection of younger functionaries.
Bach himself referred to the challenges posed by the "digital tsunami" approaching the Olympic shores.
"We're a diverse group of people, global people," said Coe.
"There is a talented membership. That membership needs to be embraced. I think the membership needs to have a good range of quality qualified people to look at."
Sports stars who moved into politics
The party of Imran Kahn a legendary former cricketer, has won the most seats in Pakistan's general election. He's not the only pro athlete to turn his hand to politics after hanging up his boots.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary
Imran Kahn – Pakistan's new prime minister?
Imran Kahn's Tehreek-e-Insaf party has won the most seats in Pakistan's general election. As a cricketer Kahn did it all. An "all-rounder," he claimed more than 350 test wickets with the ball and averaged almost 40 runs with the bat. Among his numerous achievements was captaining Pakistan to the 1992 Cricket World Cup title.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary
George Weah — President of Liberia
George Weah, representing the Coalition for Democratic Change, won more than 60 percent of the vote in the runoff of the 2017 Liberan presidential election against the incumbent Vice President Joseph Boakai. As a footballer, he played for AS Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan. In 1995 he was named the FIFA World Player of the Year.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Jallanzo
Vitali Klitschko — mayor of Kyiv
Like his brother Wladimir, Vitali Klitschko fought in the ring into his 40s, but Vitali had already begun a political career while still dominating heavyweight boxing. He first fought to be mayor of Ukraine's capital Kyiv in 2006, but only won the job in 2014 after Ukraine's "Maidan" revolution. His fairly fluent German comes in handy when Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (r.) visits.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/B. von Jutrczenka
Manny Pacquiao — Duterte's successor?
Boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao has become a staunch supporter of hardline Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte since hanging up his gloves. Duterte has said more than once that he expects the former champ, now a senator, to succeed him as president. Pacquiao has stood up for some of Duterte's more contentious policies, like his war on drugs, mentioning his own drug addiction as a youth.
Image: Getty Images/M.Dejeto
Romario — '94 World Cup winner, Rio senator
Romario de Souza Faria wore the number 11 and partnered Bebeto up front when Brazil won the 1994 World Cup. Only Pele and Ronaldo have scored more for the Selecao. Now he's a sitting senator for Rio de Janeiro, representing the Socialist party of former presidents Lula and Dilma Rousseff.
Image: Getty Images/E.Sa
Judy Martz — speed skater and Montana governor
Judy Martz has often been first among Montana women. In 1964, competing in the 1,500-meter speed skating, she became one of the first two women from the state to go to the Olympics. In January 2001, she became the state's first female governor. At least for now, she remains Montana's only one. Republican Martz served one term, until 2005, and didn't run for a second.
Image: Getty Images/A.Wong
Ken Dryden — Montreal Canadiens, Liberal Party MP
Montreal Canadiens goaltender and NHL Hall of Famer Ken Dryden — so tall they called him the "four-story goalie" — won the Stanley Cup in his 1971 debut season. He went on to win five more that decade. By 2004, though, Dryden was drafted as a "star candidate" for the Liberal Party of current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He held a seat for seven years, and later even sought the party leadership.
Image: Getty Images/R.Wolowicz
Arnold Schwarzenegger — to California via Hollywood
Most know him either as The Terminator or as former governor of California, but it all began for Arnold Schwarzenegger as a pro bodybuilder. Aged 23, he became the youngest ever "Mr. Olympia." California's 38th Governor was first elected in 2003 in a special recall election, and was then elected to a second, full term in 2006. He later returned to acting and a Terminator reboot — "I'll be back."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Bill Bradley — New York Knick, New Jersey senator
NBA Hall of Famer Bill Bradley is that rarest of things: a New York Knick with a championship ring to his name. He was part of the 1970 and '73 chamionship teams, the only NBA titles the Knicks have ever won. But he also majored in history at Princeton and grew up a political animal. As a Democrat, he served almost two decades as a New Jersey Senator, even seeking the 2000 presidential nomination.
Image: Getty Images/P.Newcomb
Sebastian Coe — gold in the 80s, organizer in 2012
Enlisting Sebastian Coe was quite a coup for Britain's Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher. Winner of the 1,500-meter gold in 1980 and 1984, Coe was an MP by 1992. But he lost his seat in the next election. He was made a Lord, a permanent member of Britain's upper house, in 2000. But he's best known for his work as an ambassador for London's 2012 Olympics, and as current president of the IAAF.
Image: Getty Images/S. Powell
Gustav-Adolf Schur — DDR cyclist and socialist
An A-list celebrity in the former East Germany, Gustav-Adolf "Täve" Schur was snapped up by the party apparatus early on. Aged just 27 he was already a member of the East German parliament, serving in it from 1958 until its abolition in 1990. After reunification, he served a term in the federal parliament for a socialist party. Some said he shouldn't have got a spot in cycling's hall of fame.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Gerald Ford — Also a college footballer
Most remember the 38th President of the United States as the vice president thrown into the breach by Richard Nixon's resignation. But Gerald R. Ford was also an important water carrier for the University of Michigan's college football team in the 1932-34 seasons. In the first two of those, the "Wolverines" went undefeated.
Image: Public Domain/Gerald R. Ford Library
Ayrton Senna — Brazil's missed opportunity?
Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians lined the streets to bid farewell in 1994, after treble F1 champion Ayrton Senna was killed at the San Marino Grand Prix. An aggressive bully on the track, Senna was a different person out of the cockpit: fiercely religious, philanthropic and visibly pained by the plight of Brazil's poorest. Many in the F1 paddock were convinced he'd go into politics one day.