Elected ioc

International Olympic Committee President Thomas: Reflecting on his Olympic journey, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach has said he feels special that there has been no boycott in any of the Olympic Games he has overseen. Bach will step down as IOC president in June having served 12 years in the role after the German has announced that he will not seek to remain in charge for a third term when his present tenure ends in 2025.

An Olympic fencing champion in Montreal in 1976, Bach said that various political boycotts against the Olympics in the 1980s prompted him to engage himself in sports management. "It is very special for me that none of the Olympic Games I have been presiding (over) had any boycott," Bach told Xinhua, adding that despite many geopolitical tensions before Paris 2024, the IOC was able to gather athletes from 206 countries and regions and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.

Elected IOC president in 2013, Bach acknowledged that he had regrets about sometimes being too impatient to drive changes forward, adding that greater explanation and clarity could have been given.