OLYMPIA: Outgoing International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach was named honorary president for life on Wednesday, with the German due to step down in June after 12 years in charge.
The proposal was passed by acclamation with a teary-eyed Bach, whose successor will be elected on Thursday, earning a standing ovation from the IOC members at their session in southern Greece.
Bach, a German lawyer and former Olympic fencing champion, took over in 2013 and immediately introduced wide-ranging reforms both in relation to the Olympic Games and the IOC itself, including reducing the size and cost of the Games to make them more attractive to future host cities.
His tenure as president was at times rocky, with the Olympics hit by the 2014 Sochi Games’ Russian state-backed doping scandal, which led to Russian athletes participating as neutrals in several editions of the Games.
He also had to deal with political tensions on the Korean Peninsula prior to the 2018 winter Games in South Korea’s Pyeongchang, and was also forced to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
wn from his post on June 23 and will also vacate his IOC membership post. Agencies
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