Saying it's time for change, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach declared at the Paris Games on Saturday, August 10 he will not seek to remain in charge for a third term.
"New times are calling for new leaders," said the 70-year-old German, who has been in charge since 2013. His somewhat surprising announcement means the IOC will have a new leader next year.
Bach said he was asked to stay on but decided he would not attempt to extend his mandate. This would require changing the Olympic charter that limits the president to a maximum of 12 years in the role.
He won gold for West Germany in the foil fencing team event at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. After that, he was elected as an IOC member at the age of 37 and went on to play a series of influential roles within the organization even before becoming president.
His successor will be elected during the IOC's 143rd session in Athens from March 18-21, 2025, and will take office in June 2025.
Potential Candidates to Succeed Thomas Bach
Who will succeed Thomas Bach?
Several candidates have been suggested, according to media reports.
One is Kirsty Coventry, a 40-year-old former swimmer for Zimbabwe. Another is Aruba's Nicole Hoevertsz, a 60-year-old former synchronized swimmer.
The IOC has never had a woman as president in its 130-year history and electing a female would go a long way in improving its image.
Morinari Watanabe, the 66-year-old Japanese president of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), intends to run for the IOC's top leadership position, Jiji Press reported on Sunday.
Then there is World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, a British two-time Olympic gold medalist at 1,500 meters.
When asked by reporters in Paris about the prospects of him becoming IOC President, Coe said, "I'd obviously give it some serious thought."
Thomas Bach Leads IOC During Turbulent Times
But that discussion is for another time. For now, how will Bach's tenure as president be remembered?
During his tenure, Bach worked tirelessly to establish an iron-clad boundary between sports and politics but it has become more and more difficult in the increasingly politicized world.
On the political front, the most difficult challenge for Bach over the years has been dealing with Russia.
Prior to the Paris Games, Bach harshly criticized Russia for its "blatant violation" of the Olympic charter.
Russia and Belarus were banned from the Paris Games over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, with Belarus having been used as a staging ground.
Only a small group of Russian and Belarusian athletes were allowed to take part in the Paris Games as neutral individual athletes without their flag and emblem.
Russia has also been banned from several previous Olympics over what has been termed "systematic doping" of athletes stemming from the 2014 Sochi Games.
In recent Games, Russian athletes took part as Olympic Athletes of Russia or members of the Russian Olympic Committee.
Many felt the IOC was being too lenient in allowing them to do so.
Bach also did everything he could to improve conditions for athletes, notably as a founding member of the IOC's Athletes' Commission, before taking over from Jacques Rogge.
A lawyer by trade, Bach got his sports politics education with Adidas in the 1980s. After being elected to the IOC in 1991, he helped draft its anti-corruption reforms after the Salt Lake City bribery scandal.
Indeed, one of the reasons Bach decided to step down was to adhere to the standards of good governance set out in those reforms.
Tokyo 2020's Delay: a Difficult Decision
Closer to home, the decision to delay the Tokyo 2020 Games by one year due to COVID-19 was a difficult and controversial one for Bach.
According to a Bloomberg News report of March 5, 2020, Bach stated that neither the word "cancellation" or "postponement" were used during IOC meetings regarding the upcoming Summer Games in Tokyo amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
That may have been the case, but later that month, the IOC reversed course and postponed the Games until 2021.
The Tokyo Games were held without fans, a decision that left many in Japan feeling they had been denied a basic and fundamental element of the Olympics.
Bach, for the most part, received an icy reception in Tokyo that was only exacerbated when he referred to the Japanese people as "Chinese."
Could the IOC have waited another year so that fans might have been able to attend? It's hard to say.
Olympic cycles, which involve huge sums of cash, have to be adhered to. Delaying the Tokyo Games further would have been problematic for the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.
Still, the Tokyo decision left many in Japan feeling cheated.
Reforms at the IOC
The irony is that during his tenure, Bach also came up with the Olympic Agenda 2020, a project which included a series of reforms aimed at being more flexible for host cities.
The next president will be able to prepare for the future with peace of mind.
That said, the Summer and Winter Olympic Games have been awarded until 2034, with "significant" interest in the 2036 and 2040 editions, according to Bach.
For the most part, Bach's tenure will be viewed favorably. The recently completed Paris Games were highly successful.
Bach has deftly navigated the Olympics through bribery and doping scandals, a global pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
While bidding for the Summer and Winter Games is not as popular as it used to be, Bach has ensured the Olympics are in safe hands for the time being with Italy, the United States and Australia set to host the Games in the coming years.
Japan Finishes 3rd Overall in Gold Medals
The United States finished first in the total number of medals (126) at the Paris Olympics, and Team USA shared the top spot in gold medals (40) with China.
China was the runner-up in total medals (91).
Only the US and China had more gold medals than Japan, which hauled in 20.
Team Japan also had 12 silver and 13 bronze to give it a total of 45 medals, 13 less than it collected at the Tokyo Olympics, when it grabbed 27 golds.
This time, Japan was sixth in total medals, trailing the US, China, Great Britain (65), France (64) and Australia (53). Italy was next behind Japan with a 40-medal haul.
It was Japan's best medal haul for an overseas Olympics, surpassing the 41 its athletes won at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
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Sports editor Ed Odeven contributed to this report.
Author: Jim Armstrong
The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for over 25 years. You can find his articles on SportsLook.
