MUMBAI (Reuters) – International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said on Monday a call for him to stay on past the end of his second term would be discussed internally and refused to rule out remaining in place past 2025.
Several IOC members on Sunday during their session in the Indian financial capital called on Bach to stay on despite a limit of two terms.
Elected in 2013, Bach is due to step down in 2025 in line with current Olympic Charter rules, following a first eight-year term and a second four-year one.
“I had heard some rumours before and some members wanted me to continue my mandate but I did not expect this would come to the session,” Bach told a press conference.
“There were mainly two motivations for them. A number of these colleagues think and feel an election campaign so early… would disrupt preparations for the Paris 2024 Games which are so important to the Olympic movement.
“They also wanted to express their recognition for the work accomplished by the IOC in the last 10 years and wanted to show their strong support.”
Since taking over, Bach has had to tackle a number of major crises such as the Russian doping scandal following the 2014 winter Games in Sochi.
He also had to co-ordinate postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by a year due to COVID-19 as well as the fallout on world sport from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The former Olympic fencing champion has also pushed through many major reforms aimed at making the bidding and organising for the Olympics less expensive and complicated, and more attractive, for future host cities.
The number of presidential terms was limited to two decades ago to avoid lengthy tenures such as that of former president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was in charge for 21 years from 1980 to 2001.
“I believe this is human that I was really touched and appreciated this show of support and friendship for me,” Bach said.
“For these reasons it is a matter of mutual respect and personal relationships that you do not dismiss such a thing out of hand.
“You may understand such an answer you don’t give out of hand and over the media. This has to be discussed with the people concerned.”
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann and Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
