10 days before the opening ceremony of the Sochi Games, Thomas Bach is sleeping soundly. The IOC President explained this on Monday January 27, during a telephone press conference: the next Olympic event inspires him with the greatest confidence. “I am sure that they will be very, very successful,” he said in reference to these Winter Games, his first as president of the five-ringed institution.
For Thomas Bach, there is no doubt that sport will regain its rights once the curtain rises on the competitions. Everything else will then fade behind the events and their athletes: political controversies, questions of human rights, economic gigantism and terrorist threats. The German leader assures that he has “confidence in the Russian authorities. » He even goes to say: “You can be sure that the Russians will do everything to welcome everyone and make everyone feel good there.”
So far, nothing very surprising. Thomas Bach is in his role, that of an IOC president calming the fears of some and the doubts of others, publicly expressing his confidence in the organizers and using his experience to promise, with his hand on his heart, that sport will be always the strongest in the Olympic setting.
Nevertheless, the IOC President always knows how to surprise. He proved it again on Monday, when the subject shifted to the thorny issue of anti-gay laws in Russia. Certainly, Thomas Bach recalled that the podiums of the Games could under no circumstances be transformed into platforms for political demands and play a remake of the Mexico Games in 1968. The IOC will therefore sanction any athlete who dares to violate the principles of the charter Olympic.
But, surprisingly, he also explained that those selected for the Olympic Games could, if they wished, use their freedom of expression at a press conference. “If they want to make a political statement there, they are free to do so.” Clearly, there is no question of expressing the slightest opinion on the podium, a space reserved for a neutral and apolitical ceremonial, but complete freedom will be left to the competitors to express themselves in front of the media, including in the Olympic spaces which are the halls of press conference. Will they? Answer in a few days.
