Olympic president Thomas Bach says term limits at the IOC 'necessary'

One day after some Olympic officials urged him to scrap term limits and stay for four more years, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Monday they "are necessary." The German lawyer also took a public swipe at potential successor Sebastian Coe because some colleagues think he is campaigning too early.

The proposal on Sunday to remain as president, which Bach declined to dismiss, heaped negative headlines on the IOC. It made the Olympic body seem ready to override a key anti-corruption reform passed following the Salt Lake City bid scandal 25 years ago.

Bach, whose 12-year presidential term ends in 2025, also said Monday his supporters were opposed to any campaigning by one potential candidate — Coe, the president of track body World Athletics and a two-time Olympic champion runner.

"A number of these colleagues think and feel that an election campaign so early before the election would be disrupting the preparations for the Olympic Games Paris, which are so important for the entire Olympic movement," Bach said of the presidential vote set for March 2025.

Coe, who won back-to-back gold medals in the 1,500 metres, has said this year he is not ruling out a run for the IOC presidency. That was an untypical statement of intent in the discreet world of Olympic politics.

When Bach was asked Monday if his supporters wanted to stop Coe, he replied: "I leave that up to you."

The IOC meeting ended Sunday with an apparent caution to Coe that the Olympic Charter as currently written limits his presidential ambition. Members turning 70 can get a one-time addition of four years but then must leave when that year ends. That would be just five years into a theoretical Coe presidency.

Bach also declined to specify if he might yet be a candidate himself in 2025.

Praised during global crisis

Bach was a long-time favourite to become president before he was elected by IOC members in September 2013 in a six-candidate contest. IOC presidents get a first term of eight years and he was re-elected unopposed in 2021 for a final four years.

IOC members from Africa and Latin America used the organization's annual meeting Sunday in Mumbai, India, to praise Bach's leadership during global crises. They urged him to change its rulebook to permit a third term.

"They all wanted to express their recognition for the work having been accomplished by the IOC in the last 10 years," Bach said.

"I have also yesterday made it clear how loyal I am to the Olympic Charter," he said, referring to the rules and principles that guide global sports, "and having been a co-author of the Olympic Charter, also speak for the fact that I'm thinking term limits are making a lot of sense and are necessary."

Citing the recent years of global crises, several of the 99 International Olympic Committee members opened Sunday's annual meeting suggesting they needed more of Bach's leadership that started in 2013.

The Olympic movement needed "to go through this period of torment with a president who has proved his mettle," said the Algerian leader of African Olympic bodies, Mustapha Berraf.

"We really need to be able to rely on the leadership you have shown," said IOC member Luis Mejia Oviedo of the Dominican Republic, in praise echoed by colleagues from Paraguay and Djibouti.

Though Bach has never publicly sought a term limit-busting third mandate, the option has been spoken of in international sports circles since he was re-elected in 2021 at a meeting held remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The IOC gives its president a first term of eight years.

"I cannot hide how that went straight to my heart," Bach told IOC members of their support at its meeting being held in Mumbai, India.

'I'm very loyal to the Olympic Charter'

Bach neither encouraged nor dismissed the proposal though noted the presidential term limit is enshrined in the IOC's book of rules and principles.

"I'm very loyal to the Olympic Charter," the German lawyer said. "Being a co-author of this Olympic Charter drives me to be even more loyal."

Extending Bach's term would need a proposal submitted ahead of an annual meeting, known as the Session. The next is scheduled in July in Paris on the eve of the 2024 Summer Games.

The final speaker Sunday on behalf of the IOC Ethics Commission, Kenyan diplomat Amina Mohamed, said the Charter made no exceptions for a sitting president. The ethics panel, she said, would "ensure that the IOC adheres to the highest possible ethical standards."

Bach turns 70 in December, though as an IOC member since before the Salt Lake City reforms — he was elected in 1991, 32 years ago — he can stay until he turns 80.

Bach won a six-candidate contest in 2013 to be elected by his fellow IOC members in a second round of voting. He was unopposed for re-election in 2021.

The IOC contest in 2013 saw little public campaigning and a vote behind closed doors.

Speculation on other candidates to succeed Bach has included two of the IOC's four vice presidents, Nicole Hoevertsz of Aruba and Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. of Spain, plus Zimbabwe sports minister Kirsty Coventry, who is widely seen as a favored protege of Bach.

Samaranch's father was IOC president for 21 years from 1980 until 2001. He was succeeded by Jacques Rogge of Belgium, who had the maximum 12 years allowed under the post-Salt Lake City reforms.