According to a press release by the International Olympic Committee, Olympic champion Thomas Bach has been re-elected for another four-year tenure as the President of the IOC.
The 67 year old German got 93 yes and 1 no vote out of 94 valid votes at the 137th IOC Session that took place virtually on Monday.
Thomas Bach, who clinched gold with the German foil fencing team at the Olympic Games held at Montreal in 1976, was elected as IOC President at the IOC Session that took place in Buenos Aires in 2013 for a first eight-year term. The tenure will end on the closing day of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 this year on 8 August and his second tenure will immediately commence thereafter and conclude in 2025.
“Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for this overwhelming vote of confidence and trust. For me, this is even more overwhelming considering the many reforms and the many difficult decisions we had to take, which affected all of us,” said President Bach after the election.
Bach, as an athlete, was a brilliant Olympic gold winning fencer. During his first term as the IOC President, he pioneered the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms for the future of the IOC and the Olympic Movement that were adopted in 2014. The Agenda significantly reformed the Olympic Games, the IOC and Olympic Movement.
Thomas Bach, during his premiership was honoured with the glorious Seoul Peace Prize in October 2020. He also received the Cem – Papandreou Peace Award in Athens, the acknowledgement given to individuals and groups who have made “an outstanding contribution to peace”.
