Lausanne, March 8 (AP) Thomas Bach says he feels a rare calm in his final weeks as IOC president even as a “new world order” gains speed ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Bach led the International Olympic Committee through two locked-down Games in a global pandemic and several affected by Russian doping and military aggression, among other crises.
His successor will be elected March 20 and inherit an IOC financially secure with future Olympic hosts that today look stable and reliable.
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Still, the biggest event for the next IOC president — the L.A. Summer Games — could yet challenge Bach’s faith in the Olympics’ power to unite the world in peaceful competition and mutual acceptance.
“We have a new world order in the making, and this making … will not happen without rumbling,” Bach said this week, without criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump.
Signature Bach policies have been gender parity and inclusive acceptance of all 206 national teams, plus refugee athletes. Political neutrality is an ideal Bach clings to even as Trump has warned of denying visas to athletes based on the government’s gender interpretations.
“I am also convinced that President Trump and his administration will fully support the Olympic Games,” Bach told The Associated Press in a rare interview at IOC headquarters.
“He likes sport, so there I don’t see a risk.”
The American people, Bach added, “appreciate and love that the Games are about sport but they are about more than sport. They will want to welcome the athletes from all over the world.”
The IOC has defended female boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting — the Paris Olympic gold medalists. Both had been disqualified from the 2023 world championships run by the Russian-backed International Boxing Association, which said they failed eligibility tests.
“These two women boxers have been born as women, they have been raised as women, they have competed as women and nobody ever claimed even that they are transgender,” Bach said in AP’s interview.
“What happened there was a Russian-led misinformation campaign which then distorted the truth, the facts and now we have this unfortunate situation that these two athletes are considered to be transgender. But. They. Are. Not.”
Before the Paris Olympics, Bach warned of “deeply disturbing” trends, including “narrow self-interests trumping the rule of law.”
“What I see is very heated discussion in the United States,” Bach told the AP. “But this is for the citizens of the United States to have. Our values are very clear and on those values the Olympic Games are based.”
Bach’s presidency since 2013 saw two Games impacted by Covid-19; one shadowed by Korean political tensions; several affected by Russian doping and military aggression; and one almost implode with a chaotic local organizing team in Rio de Janeiro that pulled the IOC into vote-buying allegations.
“I’m experiencing the first period during my presidency where I do not have an existential problem of the Olympic Games or the Olympic Movement on my desk,” Bach said.
The 71-year-old German lawyer and 1976 Olympic gold medalist in fencing leaves office in June.
“I’m fit and very happy in great health.”
A key decision early in Bach’s presidency was extending NBC’s broadcast rights in the U.S. through 2032. Renewing or finding a new partner is a big decision for the next president. Bach suggested a free-to-air network is important.
“You can say of streaming, They are paying such a lot of money, let’s go for streaming.’ But what does it mean for our values?” Bach said. “The Olympic Games has to be accessible to everybody and not only the ones that can afford it. This balance you have to find.”
Bach and predecessor Jacques Rogge were Olympic athletes who rose to represent the IOC with various heads of state.
“That is one of the privileges as IOC president is that you get everybody on the phone,” Bach said. “I haven’t experienced any situation where somebody would have said, I am not interested to talk.’”
The late Henry Kissinger “gave very valuable advice” in real-world diplomacy.
Bach’s potential as a future Olympic leader was clear from 1981 when he and Sebastian Coe, a candidate to succeed him, helped represent athletes at a key IOC meeting in Baden-Baden, West Germany. He later worked for Horst Dassler and Adidas who reportedly were monitored for the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police.
Asked if there was a Stasi file on him, Bach said: “Not that I knew. I cannot imagine.”
Bach had warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. Bach and the Olympics have been targets of Russian misinformation, cyber attacks and deep fake videos during the past decade of sanctioning the state-backed doping scandal and fallout from the invasion of Ukraine.
Bach’s legacy includes changing how hosts are picked. No more blockbuster contests vulnerable to vote-buying.
“The atmosphere was just not clean, not sober. It put the whole credibility of the IOC in doubt.”
There were no allegations of wrongdoing in how the French Alps, Brisbane and Salt Lake City were selected as hosts of the Olympics from 2030-2034.
