President Bach to resign as IOC member after June 23 this year

President Bach to resign as IOC member after June 23 this year

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach will resign as its member in June this year.

The IOC Executive Board (EB) on Wednesday agreed to accept the resignation of Bach as an IOC member, effective after June 23. This will be the day of the handover to the new IOC President, who will be elected on March 20 in Costa Navarino, Greece.

There are seven candidates to succeed Bach. They are World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, multiple Olympic swimming champion Kirsty Coventry, who is Zimbabwe’s sports minister, as well as Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch, son of the late former IOC president. International cycling chief David Lappartient, Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, International Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe and Olympic newcomer and multimillionaire Johan Eliasch, who heads the International Ski Federation, complete the candidates’ lineup. 

Bach tendered his resignation this week to the IOC EB following his announcement at the IOC Session in Paris that he would not seek an extension to his presidency despite calls from IOC members to do so.

Bach was elected on September 10 in 2013 as the ninth President of the IOC. He was re-elected for a second four-year term on March 10 in 2021.

Bach became an Olympic champion when he won a gold medal with his team in foil fencing at Montreal edition in 1976. In 2006, he was elected as the founding President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).

Bach was an athletes’ representative at the XI Olympic Congress in Baden-Baden (1981) and a founding member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission. He was elected as an IOC member in 1991, and as a member of the IOC Executive Board in 1996, and served as an IOC Vice-President for more than 10 years. He has also chaired several IOC commissions.