The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee has accepted the resignation of IOC President Thomas Bach, effective in June this year. This is stated on the committee's website, UNN reports.
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has accepted the resignation of the current president of the organization, Thomas Bach, effective June 23, the day when the powers will be handed over to the next president of the organization.
The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today agreed to accept the resignation of IOC President Thomas Bach as a member of the IOC, effective after June 23, 2025,
The new IOC president will be elected on March 20 in Greece.
In August 2024, Bach had already announced his decision not to run for re-election.
Seven candidates will take part in the election of the IOC head.
For reference
Bach was elected in 2013 and became the ninth president of the IOC, and in 2021 he was re-elected for another term.
Prior to that, he was a professional fencer for the German national team, where he won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. He was also elected founding president of the German Olympic Sports Confederation in 2006.
The German began his career at the IOC in 1991, when he was elected to the committee and became a member of the executive board in 1996. Thomas served as the committee's vice president for more than 10 years and chaired several commissions.
During his tenure, Bach is credited with emphasizing the importance of sustainable development in the bids for the Summer and Winter Games in his "Olympic Program 2020." He enjoys broad support from the world federations that benefit from and depend on IOC funding. Under Bach, the IOC prided itself on investing 90% of its revenues back into sport.
He has also faced criticism, particularly in the West, for courting authoritarian rulers and dictators, including Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in 2018, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
He has also been accused of turning a blind eye to state-sponsored Russian doping and criticized for his apparent reluctance to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in Paris 2024 after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
