The president of the International Olympic Committee will leave his position when his last term expires in June 2025. The top leader of world Olympics was excited at the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, he was clear that his closing speech was the farewell to a before and after of the IOC. For the same reason, the sensations traveled a thousand times in a matter of seconds, there was no time to stop, only to be grateful. His face always gives a smile, despite the vicissitudes, the ups and downs that this most influential position in the world of sports has.
Paris and not another capital city was the place chosen by Thomas Bach to announce that he will not go for a third term starting in March 2025, which would have meant modifying the Olympic Charter, an action that Bach himself did not agree with, pointing out “then After deep deliberation, I came to the conclusion that I should not ask for my mandate to be extended,” in order to “protect the credibility” of the Olympic movement, the German leader stated.
The arrival of Thomas Bach in mid-2013 did not herald such profound changes in the future of the Olympic movement, everyone or the vast majority felt comfortable and at ease with the functioning of the IOC, but the first signal that Bach gave was precisely when he had just assumed the presidency in Buenos Aires, Argentina “In my administration you will find a leader who will work for a more inclusive IOC, where everyone without exception feels identified, not only with the Olympic values, but also, that we are capable of making transformations and not “Let us be afraid of changes, as long as the changes are a greater good, it will indicate to us that we are on the right path.”
That first intervention by Thomas Bach was literally sculpted in stone. He traced the path of an International Olympic Committee for “new” times, where equality, equity, inclusion, care for the environment, sustainability, respect for the rights of athletes. He dared to incorporate new technologies, break with the inertia of decades, dare to produce behavioral changes in today’s society. Thomas Bach broke all the schemes. His ability to work, without measuring or quantifying the time invested, he understood from the first day that his life would change, but also, he would help thousands of young people change, perhaps in this long pilgrimage he saw himself, when he came to fencing Being a teenager, without imagining that with the passage of time he would become an Olympic team champion in fencing, he once declared about it: “My parents encouraged me from the first day, I had great support, they were my pillars, but they let me fly and, most importantly, find my own space. In the end I discovered that sport would be my great source of inspiration and would give me the tools to conquer my own world.”
Thomas Bach will leave great “Legacies”, many of them are part of this renewed International Olympic Committee. Its vision of the future will continue to be present in every action undertaken by the IOC and its own leaders. There is no turning back from the path outlined, except to look at and honor those who created, founded and nurtured the values of Olympism. But Thomas Bach went further, he dared, he mortgaged his own prestige more than once, he was stubborn until the end to hold the Tokyo 2020+1 Olympic Games, even though the vast majority thought it was not appropriate to do them due to Covid19. , despite that heavy burden, felt that those games in particular were vital for all of humanity, without the Olympic Games there was no hope, Thomas Bach partially returned that hope, he believed once again in sport as a transformative tool and that It is capable of uniting us, embracing diversity and fighting for a better world, that world that we all dream of, where sport is our source of inspiration.
It has been several days since the Closing Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games ended and it will remain in the minds of billions of people around the world that these Games were amazing, of a magnificence rarely seen, with an audience that filled each of the sporting scenarios, with athletes who were moved by their medals and others who won their own medal for effort, by beating their personal record and very far from the great marks or times, as Thomas Bach wrote in his navigation chart during these almost 12 years of governance: “The athlete is our core, he is the center of every action we carry out, we cannot move away from that principle enshrined in the Olympic Charter, we have to work to deliver increasingly better conditions to athletes, only Thus, we will build a better world through sport,” said the IOC president.
There will be many chronicles, reports, editorials alluding to the leadership of Thomas Bach at the head of the International Olympic Committee and, in my particular case, there will be more than one editorial referring to him, but I cannot fail to highlight and value the disposition with the media. communication in general, in my particular case, I had the privilege of interviewing him on several occasions and, the truth is, I am left with that affable man, with an easy smile, conversational, with a leadership rarely seen, sometimes, low profile, but with a status of the “chosen”. Thomas Bach leaves Paris with his mission more than accomplished, at 70 years old he can feel proud of taking the IOC to the place it deserves, he has a little less than a year left, and in that period of time do not be surprised by the future of the International Olympic Committee and the changes that Thomas Bach will continue to implement until the last day of governance.
Mercy beaucoup á tous.
