Paris 2024 Olympics - IOC Session - Main Press Centre, Paris, France - August 10, 2024. International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach during the IOC Session REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw
PARIS (Reuters) -International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach will not seek to remain in the post after the end of his second term in 2025 despite calls from members to stay on, he said on Saturday.
Bach, a German lawyer who has been in charge since 2013, surprised members at the end of their session in Paris, saying he was asked to continue but would not attempt to extend his mandate.
That would have required a change in the Olympic charter that limits the president to a maximum of 12 years -- a first eight-year term and a second four-year term, that he himself had helped draft.
"As a result of deep deliberations and extensive discussions... I have come to the conclusion that I should not have my mandate extended beyond the limits stipulated in the Olympic Charter," Bach told the session as the Paris Olympics draw to a close.
"After 12 years in the office of IOC President our organisation is best served with a change in leadership. New times are calling for new leaders," he said, with his voice breaking and welling up.
The new IOC president will be elected in March 2025 at the session in ancient Olympia and will take over in June of that year, Bach said, to allow for a smooth transition. No member has yet openly campaigned to succeed Bach.
An Olympic fencing champion in 1976 who joined the Olympic body as a member in 1991, Bach has ruled with an iron fist and virtually no opposing voices since taking over from his predecessor Jacques Rogge 11 years ago.
He introduced sweeping reforms for the faster introduction of sports onto the Olympic programme, the bidding process and the staging of the Games, reducing overall costs and making the prospect of the event more attractive to candidate cities.
In his 11 years in charge, all but one of the votes were unanimously approved by members.
Bach's departure comes with the organisation in a financially robust position, having secured $7.3 billion for the years 2025-28 and $6.2 billion already in deals for the period 2029-2032.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)
