Thomas Bach OLY

Thomas Bach was born on 29 December 1953 in Würzburg, Germany. He completed his studies in law at the University of Würzburg. Mr Bach started his own law firm in 1982. From 1985 until 1987 he was Director for Promotion at Adidas.

Married and a lawyer by profession, he has had a successful career in sports both on and off the field of play. He became an Olympic champion when he won a gold medal in fencing (team foil) at the Games of the XXI Olympiad in Montreal in 1976. He also won two consecutive gold medals at the World Championships in the same event in 1976 and 1977. In 2006, he was named as the founding President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). He was also involved in the organization of the FIFA 2006 World Cup™ and the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup™ in Germany.

Thomas Bach was an athletes’ representative at the XI Olympic Congress in Baden-Baden (1981) and a founding member of the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission. He became an IOC member in 1991, was elected as a member of the IOC Executive Board in 1996 and served as an IOC Vice-President for more than 10 years. He has also chaired several IOC Commissions as well as the appeals division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). On 10 September 2013 in Buenos Aires, Thomas Bach was elected as the ninth President of the IOC. He was re-elected for a second four-year term on 10 March 2021 in Lausanne.