Thomas Bach preparing to leave IOC top job with a 'clear conscience' after 12 years

Karissa Donkin · CBC Sports

· Posted: Mar 18, 2025 12:03 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

As helium approaches his last week in the sporting world's apical job, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach is feeling relaxed.

When a caller IOC president is elected Thursday, and Bach formally leaves the relation successful June, it volition beryllium with a "clear conscience," the outgoing boss told reporters this week wrong a Greek edifice wherever IOC members volition prime his successor.

"It's the play during each my presidency wherever I bash not person an existential occupation for the Olympic question oregon the Olympic Games connected my desk," Bach, who has held the apical occupation successful planetary athletics since 2013, said connected Monday.

Those challenges person ranged from a planetary pandemic impacting 2 abstracted Olympic Games, warfare and conflict, and a Russian doping ungraded that emerged from the 2014 Games successful Sochi. Bach's handling of the latter, successful particular, drew criticism, with Russian athletes inactive capable to vie astatine the Games arsenic neutral athletes.

But Bach leaves connected a precocious enactment aft completing negotiations for an NBC media rights woody worthy $3 cardinal US , and a Games successful Paris that felt similar the instrumentality of the tone of the Olympics.

Bach said helium didn't deliberation his successor would beryllium facing arsenic overmuch uncertainty arsenic helium did erstwhile helium started his mandate much than a decennary ago.

But that idiosyncratic does person a agelong database of challenges to confront, opening with clime change. Extreme vigor and warming temperatures endanger the aboriginal of some the Summer and Winter Olympics, thing much than 400 athletes, including much than 20 Canadians, emphasized past week successful a missive to IOC statesmanlike candidates.

'Our governmental neutrality has to beryllium respected'

Bach advised his successor to support athletes astatine the bosom of the Olympic question and to absorption connected unity. Doing that requires making definite the much than 200 nationalist Olympic committees are treated equally and the IOC remains politically neutral, helium said.

Without that, Bach said the Olympics would go "another instrumentality for authorities to disagreement this satellite adjacent more."

WATCH | A look astatine the front-runners that could win Bach: 

In an interrogation that aired connected CNN today, Bach was asked astir whether a governmental person should beryllium trying to power sporting regulations, pointing to U.S. President Donald Trump's bid banning transgender women and girls from competing successful pistillate categories of sport. It's thing the adjacent IOC president volition person to navigate arsenic Los Angeles prepares to big the 2028 Summer Olympics.

"World leaders are escaped to marque immoderate remark astir everything," Bach told CNN. "What we accidental is we volition request to person a dialog and past successful this dialogue, our autonomy and our governmental neutrality has to beryllium respected."

Bach besides told CNN helium believes overmuch of the contention astir 2 pistillate boxers, Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, astatine the Olympics successful Paris was sparked by a Russian disinformation campaign. He said the attacks began aft the IOC suspended the International Boxing Association, tally by Russian Umar Kremlev, implicit financial, governance and judging issues.

He stressed again that neither Khelif nor Lin are transgender.

"They person been calved arsenic women," Bach said connected CNN. "They person been raised arsenic women. They person been competing arsenic women. They person mislaid bouts and they person won bouts. They person adjacent competed successful the Olympic Games successful Tokyo without immoderate noise."

On Monday, the IOC's enforcement committee approved including boxing connected the 2028 Olympic programme aft recognizing a caller governing body, World Boxing. IOC members volition person to motion disconnected connected that determination this week.

Election acceptable for Thursday

The IOC opened its 144th league connected Tuesday astatine Ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics much than 2,800 years ago.

In his code astatine the opening ceremony, Bach described it arsenic "a ineffable pilgrimage to our past past" and "a manifestation of our religion successful the future." 

That aboriginal volition travel into clearer absorption connected Thursday day section clip (10 a.m. ET), erstwhile astir 100 IOC members volition statesman voting for the adjacent president. Only 1 Canadian — Tricia Smith, the president of the Canadian Olympic Committee — will vote.

"This presidency volition play a relation successful modernizing the Olympic movement, including continued integer transformation, younker engagement, and semipermanent fiscal stability building on the Olympic charter's principles of non-discrimination, just play, and solidarity," Smith said successful a written connection to CBC Sports.

"This is simply a infinitesimal to find caller ways to lean into the unsocial powerfulness athletics has to bring america together, which feels much important than ever close now."

The predetermination process has led to questions astir transparency. Each candidate's level is public, but their 1 and lone presumption to IOC members happened successful backstage and could not beryllium filmed.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, 1 of the candidates vying for the apical job, told reporters successful January that the process should beryllium reviewed. 

"It's truly important that the rank afloat recognize the nature, the style, the radical that are putting themselves forward," Coe said. "That tin lone beryllium done with idiosyncratic interaction."

The ballot itself besides happens down closed doors by concealed ballot. The adjacent president volition beryllium announced erstwhile a campaigner achieves the bulk of votes.

Seven radical are connected the ballot. Coe, on with long-time IOC enforcement committee subordinate Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. and decorated Olympian Kirsty Coventry, are seen by galore arsenic the front-runners.

You tin work much astir the candidates, the radical electing them, and the issues astatine involvement here.