Without much suspense, the German Thomas Bach was re-elected Wednesday March 10 for four additional years at the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which he has been leading since 2013. A vote which comes a few months before the Tokyo Olympic Games (23 July-8 August) turned upside down by the health crisis.

The 67-year-old Bavarian was renewed almost unanimously, with 93 votes for and one against, while four IOC members abstained during the 137th session held by videoconference.

Unless there is a change in the statutes of the body, it will have to hand over in 2025.

Olympic champion Thomas Bach has been re-elected President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for a further 4-year term.


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- Olympic Games (@jeuxolympiques) March 10, 2021

The former Olympic fencing champion should have run for this second term in Athens, in the wake of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics supposed to celebrate the country's reconstruction after the 2011 tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear accident.

But the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the postponement of the Olympic high mass for one year, and the arrival of more contagious variants of Covid-19 has since prevented any relaxation of health precautions.

"The question is not whether the Games will take place, but how"

"'Tokyo remains the best prepared host city in Olympic history and for now, we have no reason to doubt that the opening ceremony will be held well on July 23," assured the leader.

"The question is not whether the Games will take place, but how", hammered Thomas Bach, forced to convince each exit for months that the Olympics will not turn to the gigantic source of contamination.

For him, the multiple international competitions organized since the summer of 2020, "without vaccination" while some of the participants in the Games could be vaccinated, "prove" that such tournaments can take place "while preserving the health of all".

>> Read also on France24.com: Tokyo Olympics: vaccinating athletes as a priority, a controversial event

More broadly, the session approved unanimously by voters plus four abstentions the results of its "Agenda 2020", a roadmap adopted in 2014, of which "85%" of the proposals have been implemented.

To the assets of the manager, long-term securing of the interests of the IOC, of ​​its financial resources for the organization of the Olympic Games, threatened by the scarcity of candidatures and the explosion of costs.

On the other hand, each edition of the Games has been marked by controversy, in particular the soap opera of Russian cheating in 2014, 2016 and 2018, pushing the IOC to encourage the centralization of anti-doping tests by the young International Control Agency.

With AFP

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