Thomas Bach

Bach was elected to an eight-year term as IOC President at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires on 10 September 2013. He secured 49 votes in the final round of voting, giving him the majority needed to be elected. He succeeds Jacques Rogge who served as IOC President from 2001 to 2013.[13] Bach will be eligible to run for a second four-year term at the 134th IOC Session in 2019 until 2025.[14]

Bach's successful election came against five other candidates, Sergey Bubka, Richard Carrión, Ng Ser Miang, Denis Oswald and Wu Ching-Kuo.[14] The result of the election was as follows:

Election of the 9th IOC President[15]
Candidate	Round 1[16]	Round 2
Thomas Bach	43	49
Sergey Bubka	8	4
Richard Carrión	23	29
Ng Ser Miang	6	6
Denis Oswald	7	5
Wu Ching-kuo	6	—

Bach officially moved into the IOC presidential office at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 17 September 2013, a week after being elected President.[17]

Following his election as IOC President, Bach stated that he wished to change the Olympic bidding process and make sustainable development a priority. He stated that he felt that the current bidding process asks "too much, too early".[18] These proposed reforms became known as Olympic Agenda 2020. These forty proposed reforms were all unanimously approved at the 127th IOC Session in Monaco.

The first bidding process over which Thomas Bach presided as President was the bidding process for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Bids were due in November 2013 and the host city, Beijing was elected to host the 2022 Winter Olympics at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in July 2015. Lausanne was elected to host the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics during that same session.

During the bidding process for the 2024 Summer Olympics, President Bach proposed a joint awarding of the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics after several bidders withdrew. The IOC later approved a plan to award the 2024 Olympics to Paris with Los Angeles securing the right to host the 2028 Olympics. President Bach presided over the election of Paris was elected to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and Los Angeles was elected to host the 2028 Summer Olympics at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru where both cities were unanimously elected.

Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo was elected to host the 2026 Winter Olympics at the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland. The full IOC membership will elect the host city at the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne, home of the International Olympic Committee.

One of the biggest challenges President Bach has been faced with as IOC President is having to deal with Russia's state-sponsored doping scandal. This program did begin prior to his presidency, but nonetheless it has become a pressing issue during his tenure. It had been discovered that Russia tampered with the anti-doping lab at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and that the government had sanctioned doping amongst the Russian Olympic athletes for many years.[19][20] Speaking at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics, his call to "respect the rules and stay clean" was widely interpreted as a reference to the Russian scandal.[21] Bach was harshly criticized for what many see as turning a blind-eye to Russia's state-sponsored Olympic doping effort. Jim Walden, attorney for Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, called Bach's move to reinstate the Russian Olympic Committee following the 2018 Winter Olympics despite the failed drug tests during the Games, "weakness in the face of evil".[22]

On 5 March 2020 Bloomberg News reported that Bach said "Neither the word ‘cancellation’ nor the word ‘postponement’ was even mentioned" regarding the 2020 Summer Olympics to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic at the IOC’s executive board meeting the previous day.[23] Pandemic suffers huge loss to world as a whole. All athletes should gather enough courage and moral deeds to serve their country. On 22 March 2020, the IOC announced that within four weeks a decision would be made on whether Tokyo 2020 will be staged as planned or whether a rescheduling is necessary.[24] Canada announced its withdrawal from the Games later that day, and Australia did the same on 23 March in protest against the IOC's refusal to postpone the Olympics in light of the pandemic.[25][26] Later in the month, the IOC announced the unprecedented postponement of the Olympics until 23 July - 8 August 2021.[27]

•  Greece:
  • Grand Cross of the Order of the Phoenix[31]
•  South Korea:
  • Blue Dragon (Cheongnyong) of the Order of Sports Merit[32]
•  Tunisia:
  • Grand Cordon of the Order of Merit (2016)[33]

•  Spain: Doctorate honoris causa from the Universidad Católica de Murcia.[34]
•  Japan: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Tsukuba.[35]

• Seoul Peace Prize from the Republic of Korea[36]