Times are changing in the Olympic house. The favorites are no longer the victims of a strange curse that pushes them to stumble when going to seize victory. Now they win. After Tokyo, the clear winner of the race for the 2020 Summer Games, the IOC elected its new president this afternoon in Buenos Aires. And, guess what, the name coming out of the polls is the one rumored to be the winner for several months. Always, in fact.
The German Thomas Bach, former team gold medalist foilist at the Montreal Games in 1976, business lawyer and president of his country's Olympic committee, was chosen by his peers to succeed Jacques Rogge, former world champion sailing in the 70s, orthopedic surgeon by training. A lawyer replaces a doctor, many will see this as a sign of a dubious development in the Olympic world, and even in sport in general.
Announced favorite, Thomas Bach, 59, had an almost quiet afternoon. In the first round of voting, at the Buenos Aires Hilton, the two Asians in the race, the Taiwanese CK Wu and the Singaporean Ser Miang Ng, came last, but with the same number of votes. A second vote was necessary to eliminate one of the two. CK Wu, the president of AIBA, was the one. At this stage of the race, it was not necessary to have studied geopolitics to understand that Tokyo's victory, three days earlier, had sounded the death knell for the ambitions of the Asian continent.
The second round looked uncertain. It wasn't. Thomas Bach closed the affair with 49 votes, against 29 for his most serious rival, the Puerto Rican Richard Carrion, obtaining the absolute majority without having to continue the election. He becomes the 9th president of the IOC since the creation of the institution in 1894, the first German in this position. And, above all, the 8th European on the list. A way of indicating, for the general assembly of the organization, that if the Games now go most often to Asia, the power remains in the Old Continent.
Thomas Bach's victory is not a surprise. Vice-president of the IOC, where he joined in 1991, the German had prepared his business at a time when some of his rivals were not even thinking of trying their luck. He left first, he arrived first. Normal.
Certainly, the last few weeks have sometimes seemed long to him. A documentary by the German channel ARD had questioned his integrity, pointing out his relations considered very close (too close?) with Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, president of the Kuwait Olympic committee, former head of OPEC, one of the most influential men in the Olympic house. The day before the election, the Swiss Denis Oswald, one of the six candidates for the position, had accused him by name during an interview on Swiss television of using "his position advantageously to conclude contracts for the companies he represented. » The German press also questioned his consulting contract with Siemens, supplier to the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.
Just elected, Thomas Bach was called to the podium. Visibly prepared for the exercise, he first thanked his voters for their trust. “It’s a sign of confidence that you are showing me. But also a great responsibility, but I will carry out this task following my credo: unity and diversity,” declared the new lord of the Olympic rings. The German thanked his peers in seven languages. Very strong.
Alain Mercier
The vote count (in the 2nd round): Thomas Bach 49, Richard Carrion 29, Ser Miang Ng 6, Denis Oswald 5, Sergei Bubka 4 (CK Wu had been eliminated in the 1st round of voting)
