Thomas Bach ranks with IOC presidential greats Samaranch and de Coubertin experts

COSTA NAVARINO – Thomas Bach’s life has been dominated by the Olympics, as a team fencing gold medallist and then International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief – and he deserves to be ranked as “one of the three greatest presidents”, two former IOC executives told AFP.

His successor will face innumerable challenges and crises, just as the 71-year-old German – who has since been named Honorary President – has done in his 12-year reign.

Russia has figured prominently with the invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, as well as the state-sponsored doping programme at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

Aside from that the Covid pandemic forced the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Games and the Beijing Winter Games in 2022, held in a “bubble” to shield them from coronavirus.

“There have been nine presidents over the 130-year history of the IOC,” former IOC marketing chief Michael Payne said. “Bach, by any measure, must rank as one of the three greatest IOC presidents along with (Pierre) De Coubertin, and (Juan Antonio) Samaranch.”

Terrence Burns, another former IOC marketing executive, said: “What he achieved in the most difficult of circumstances is epic.

“I think president Bach was the right president at the right time for the IOC. De Coubertin started it, Samaranch saved it, and Bach reinvented it.”

For Martin Sorrell, who founded advertising giant WPP and sat on the IOC’s Communications Commission, Bach has done a “great job”.

“He reformed the IOC, he provided a clear strategic vision,” he said. “His legacy is he leaves a much stronger IOC and Olympic organisation and world than when he took over 12 years ago.”

Payne, who in nearly two decades at the IOC was credited with renewing its brand and finances through sponsorship deals, added that it was Bach’s steeliness under pressure that