Thomas Bach

Thomas Bach (born 29 December 1953) is a German lawyer, former foil fencer, and Olympic gold medalist.

In 1971, at 17 years of age, he won the German national junior foil championship, and a bronze medal at the Junior World Fencing Championships in Chicago, Illinois.

At the World Fencing Championships he also won a team silver medal in 1973 in Gothenburg, Sweden, a team gold medal in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a team bronze medal in 1979 in Melbourne.

Australia.

He won a foil team gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada.

He grew up in Tauberbischofsheim, where he lived with his parents until 1977.

Nationally, Bach won the 1977 and 1978 German Individual Foil Championships.

He also won the 1978 European Cup of Champions of foil teams.

Bach served as the President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), prior to becoming President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Bach completed his last competitive international match on 26 October 1980 in Shanghai.

Bach earned a doctor of law (Dr. iur. utr.) degree in 1983 at the University of Würzburg.

In addition to his native German, he speaks fluent French, English and Spanish.

Bach is a former foil fencer, who competed for West Germany.

He succeeded Jacques Rogge, who had served as IOC President from 2001 to 2013.

In 2012, Bach headed Munich's bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

In the host city election, Munich secured 25 votes as South Korea's Pyeongchang was elected as host city with 63 votes.

He has served as the ninth and current president of the International Olympic Committee since 2013, the first-ever Olympic champion to be elected to that position.

Bach is also a former German individual foil champion, and former member of the German Olympic Sports Confederation's executive board.

Thomas Bach was born in Würzburg.

In order to run for IOC Presidency, he resigned as the head of the DOSB on 16 September 2013, having served in that position since 2006.

He was replaced by Alfons Hörmann, and remained a member of the DOSB Executive Board.

Additionally, he resigned as the head of Ghorfa Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Bach would, however, continue serving as the head of Michael Weinig AG Company, a company in the industrial woodworking machinery industry that has its headquarters in Bach's hometown of Tauberbischofsheim.

On 9 May 2013, Bach confirmed that he would run for President of the International Olympic Committee.

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.

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.

At a meeting of the 137th session of the International Olympic Committee on 10 March 2021, Bach was re-elected to an additional four-year term as President.

Bach, 67, was re-elected by a 93–1 vote from 94 valid votes during the session which was held virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

This is Bach's final term as IOC President, as the organization's rules limit the president's term to eight years with one renewal of four years.

Following his election as IOC President, Bach indicated his desire to change the Olympic bidding process and make sustainable development a priority.

He stated that the current bidding process "asks too much, too early".

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.

On 11 November 2017, Bach was formally granted the use of the post-nominal letters "OLY".

Bach would be eligible to run for a second four-year term at the 134th IOC Session in 2019 until 2025.

Bach's successful election came against five other candidates: Sergey Bubka, Richard Carrión, Ng Ser Miang, Denis Oswald and Wu Ching-Kuo.

The result of the election was as follows:

These forty proposed reforms became known as Olympic Agenda 2020; they were all unanimously approved at the 127th IOC Session in Monaco.

The first bidding process over which Thomas Bach presided was for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Lausanne was elected to host the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics during that same session.