Thomas Bach

Bach was born in Würzburg. He grew up in Tauberbischofsheim, where he lived with his parents until 1977. Bach earned a doctor of law (Dr. iur. utr.) degree in 1983 at the University of Würzburg. In addition to his native German, he speaks fluent French, English and Spanish.

Bach is a former foil fencer, who competed for West Germany. In 1971, at 17 years of age, he won the German national junior foil championship, and a bronze medal at the Junior World Fencing Championships in Chicago, Illinois.

At the World Fencing Championships he also won a team silver medal in 1973 in Gothenburg, Sweden, a team gold medal in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a team bronze medal in 1979 in Melbourne, Australia. Bach completed his last competitive international match on 26 October 1980 in Shanghai.

He won a foil team gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. On 11 November 2017, Bach was formally granted the use of the post-nominal letters "OLY".

Nationally, Bach won the 1977 and 1978 German Individual Foil Championships. He also won the 1978 European Cup of Champions of foil teams.

Controversies surrounding Russia

One of the biggest challenges Bach has been faced with as IOC President is having to deal with Russia's state-sponsored doping scandal. This program did begin prior to his presidency, but nonetheless it has become a pressing issue during his tenure. It had been discovered that Russia tampered with the anti-doping lab at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and that the government had overseen mass doping among the Russian Olympic athletes for many years. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics, Bach's call to "respect the rules and stay clean" was widely interpreted as a reference to the Russian scandal. Bach was harshly criticized for what many see as turning a blind eye to Russia's state-sponsored Olympic doping effort. Jim Walden, attorney for whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, called Bach's move to reinstate the Russian Olympic Committee following the 2018 Winter Olympics, despite the failed drug tests during the Games, "weakness in the face of evil".

There was wide speculation that Vladimir Putin's support was a key factor in Thomas Bach's election as IOC president in September 2013. It was reported that Putin had congratulated Bach by phone only a few minutes after his election.

Bach has been criticized by German media for his perceived friendliness towards Russia. He was even seen as instrumental in lifting the World Anti-Doping Agency's ban on Russian athletes in 2018. Bach has also expressed support for participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics, despite the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. Responding to opposition from several nation states, he said that it should not be up to national governments to decide who gets to participate in international sporting tournaments. On 22 March 2023, Bach further reiterated his support for reinstating Russian and Belarusian athletes, expressing opposition to political influence on sports and "any suggestion that Russians should be treated as if they have collective guilt".

In October 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee, which had previously sent independent Russian athletes to the Olympic Games, due to violations of the Olympic Charter – specifically, for incorporating Ukrainian sporting bodies from annexed Ukrainian territory into the Russian body, and so violating the integrity of the Ukraine Olympic Committee. Russia challenged this in the Court of Arbitration for Sport; in February 2024 the appeal was declined. This worsened tensions between the IOC and ROC, with Thomas Bach saying in March 2024 that Russia only has itself to blame.