Bach, a sports giant that North Korea also met with Kim Jong-un, is a fencing player → reappointed as IOC chairman

The confirmation that Thomas Bach, chairman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has a consecutive appointment on the 10th (local time) was not a news item among reporters specializing in IOCs around the world. In fact, it was in the atmosphere that the retirement was confirmed. His office in Lausanne, Switzerland’s lakeside city, where the IOC is headquartered, is Chateau de Vidy, where the castle is located. His Suseong (守城) was a prized prize. That’s because his leadership was solid.

He was elected chairman of the eight-year term at the IOC General Assembly in Buenos Aires, Argentina in September 2013. To the reporter at the scene, Chairman Bach showed a unique, confident and playful smile. While receiving congratulatory calls from the world’s leading leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. The IOC allows the chairperson to serve only once, and the term of office is 4 years. Chairman Bach’s term of office is guaranteed until 2025. This succession is his last wing. Chairman Bach will be able to push forward without worrying about the elections, starting with the immediate task of holding the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

There was a crisis. It is because of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). In a video interview with this magazine in March last year, he did not hide his deep concerns about the holding of the Tokyo Olympics scheduled for that year. However, in his acceptance speech shortly after his retirement, he affirmed that “the question we now have to ask is not whether the Tokyo Olympics can be held (whether), but how (how) the methodology should be held.” The opening schedule in July of this year was also nailed. This is where the confidence was read. The spread of Corona 19 in Japan is seldom caught, and vaccination is only 0.1% as of 10 days, but there seems to be nothing harsh for Bach, who has been confirmed to be retired.

One thing that may remain a regret for Bach is that the co-hosting of the 2032 South-North Olympics has failed. In an interview with reporters in 2014, Chairman Bach stressed, “I visited Pyongyang in person at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics to achieve a joint position between the two Koreas.” “I want to see the scene again in Pyeongchang.” He visited North Korea in person in 2018 and met with Kim Jong-un, chairman of the Labor Party.

Some say that he, an ambitious man, could aim for a Nobel Peace Prize or a high-ranking position in the United Nations through the joint Olympics between the two Koreas. An American IOC reporter told JoongAng Ilbo, “Chairman Bach himself (who has experience in unification) is from Germany and was very interested in North Korean issues.”

Chairman Bach himself, in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo in October last year, left room for “a definite answer about the joint hosting of the South and North Korea is difficult, but the possibilities are open.” However, the IOC last month selected Brisbane, Australia, as the preferred venue for the 2032 Summer Olympics.

Chairman Bach has a deep relationship with the Korean Peninsula in many ways. In fact, the starting point of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which he presided as chairman, was close to him. After three challenges, the number of PyeongChang’s host families that succeeded in attracting was Munich, Germany, and Bach was the head of the Munich host. Chairman Bach argued at the time that “the Olympics should be held in Europe (not in an emerging Asian city like PyeongChang) in Europe with traditional roots.”

But Chairman Bach had a big picture. The 2018 Winter Olympic Games were held in 2011, and the IOC chairman election was held in 2013. The theory that he painted a picture that yielded the former but gained the latter is pervasive in the international sports world. It is a story that comes from people who know the temperament of his long-time fighters. He was a former fencer and won a gold medal in the Fleuret team at the 1976 Montreal Olympics when he was 22 years old. Afterwards, he became a member of the IOC after becoming an entrepreneur and stood tall as a world sports giant.

Reporter Jeon Sujin [email protected]