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International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach was handed an additional four-year term as head of the organization on Wednesday.
He secured a second term with a commanding majority of 93 votes from 94 valid votes at the 137th IOC Session which was held virtually. Bach pledged to lead a 'safe and secure' Tokyo Olympics despite persistent safety concerns.
Bach was elected to his first eight-year term as IOC president in September 2013. He had succeeded the eighth IOC president, Jacques Rogge of Belgium.
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Bach has served an unexpectedly turbulent eight years which have seen the IOC deal with forces far beyond its control. He has had to cope with several leadership challenges, including the contentious 2014 Sochi Olympics, the Russian doping scandal, and the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
An IOC member since 1991, Bach was a founding member of the IOC's Athletes' Commission. He won gold with the Germany foil fencing team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. He bagged two other golds at the 1976 Montreal World Championships and the 1977 Buenos Aires World Championships.
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His current term will end on the concluding day of the Tokyo Olympics on August 8 this year. He will begin his second term immediately after the Olympics and finish it in 2025, as decided by the IOC executive board.
The IOC session also addressed the activities of the administration and reports from the Organizing Committees for the forthcoming Olympics. Bach, in his first term, launched a set of reforms for the future of the IOC and the Olympic Movement, named 'Agenda 2020'. Bach has initiated another strategic roadmap, 'Agenda 2020+5', for the years to come.
Last month, the IOC and the organizers unveiled a new rule-book underlining strict rules in place for participants to hold the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in the safest possible manner.
