Seoul Gazette - Bach ranks with IOC presidential greats Samaranch and de Coubertin: experts

Bach's successor will be elected on Thursday and will face innumerable challenges and crises, just as the 71-year-old German has done in his 12-year reign.

Russia has figured prominently with the invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, as well as the state-sponsored doping programme at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

Aside from that the Covid pandemic forced the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Games and the Beijing Winter Games in 2022, held in a 'bubble' to shield them from coronavirus.

"There have been nine presidents over the 130-year history of the IOC," former IOC marketing chief Michael Payne told AFP.

"Bach, by any measure, must rank as one of the three greatest IOC presidents along with De Coubertin, and Samaranch."

Terrence Burns, another former IOC marketing executive, said: "What he achieved in the most difficult of circumstances is epic.

"I think President Bach was the right president at the right time for the IOC," he told AFP.

"De Coubertin started it, Samaranch saved it, and Bach reinvented it."

For Martin Sorrell, who founded advertising giant WPP and sat on the IOC's Communications Commission, Bach has done a "great job."

"He reformed the IOC, he provided a clear strategic vision," he told AFP.

"You could say the state (previous president) Jacques Rogge left it in, there were some challenges to be met.

"His legacy is he leaves a much stronger IOC and Olympic organisation and world than when he took over 12 years ago.

"All power to his elbow."

- 'Weighed on me' -

Payne, who in nearly two decades at the IOC was credited with renewing its brand and finances through sponsorship deals, says it was Bach's steeliness under pressure that stands out.

"He held his nerve, and overcame each of the challenges," said the 66-year-old Irishman. "From the operational dysfunction of Rio in 2016; the geopolitical standoff between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in the lead-up to Pyeongchang (2018) and then Covid.

"Bach played a remarkable game of poker with Japan, to protect the Games and ensure that they were not cancelled, when many Japanese politicians pressed for them to be."

His micro-management style and keeping decisions in a tight group was not appreciated by some.

However, Burns says Bach adapted to the prevailing circumstances.

"I think when faced with unprecedented challenges -– Covid as well –- he adopted a management style that he felt was most efficient but maybe not the most popular," said Burns.

"One cannot argue with the results, though."

There was also criticism of his handling of Russia over its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and permitting some Russian athletes to compete as neutral athletes at the Paris Games last year, albeit providing they met strict conditions.

Some federation heads barred them completely, with one of the candidates to succeed Bach, World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, leading the way.

Burns, who since leaving the IOC has been a member of six victorious Olympics hosting bids, says things are not as black and white for an IOC supremo.

"The reaction of an IOC president is different from the reaction of an IF (International Federation) president because the IOC president presides over the entire Movement, not a single sport," said Burns.

"Single sports have a lot of leeway in how their sports are managed at the Games as well as which athletes can attend."

Bach, who leaves the Olympic Movement in excellent health financially, is not one often given to talking about himself, or indeed showing emotion.

On Wednesday though there was a bit of both as he looked genuinely moved when he was named Honorary President.

More remarkable was his revelation of how heavy the burden had been of leading the sporting world and facing existential crises.

"They had to be addressed in countless, confidential, highest-level political consultations," he said.

"It was in such situations that I felt how lonely you can be.

"Today, I can admit how much it has weighed on me."

J.Lim--SG