The Olympic movement will have a new leader next year.
IOC president Thomas Bach told a meeting of members Saturday that he will not change the rules to stay in office and that the Olympics will be “best served with a change in leadership.”
Bach has led the International Olympic Committee since September 2013 and his 12-year presidency was to expire next year — a term limit introduced as part of reforms passed after the Salt Lake City bidding scandal 25 years ago.
But speculation has grown since last October that Bach could stay on after IOC members asked him to consider changing Olympic Charter rules that would otherwise end his leadership.
The 70-year-old Bach ended any doubt about his plans on the penultimate day of the Paris Games, noting that governance had to be respected “in order to safeguard the credibility of the IOC.”
The IOC now needed a new leader, he said, who could navigate an increasingly digital and politically pressured world while building strong relations with emerging powers in the “ever more influential so-called Global South.”
“New times are calling for new leaders,” Bach said in a speech where he paused to hold back tears. “I, with my age, am not the best captain. I know with this decision I am disappointing many of you.”
An election will be scheduled for the March 18-21 IOC meetings in Greece.
The IOC membership comprises invited members including royalty from the Middle East and Europe, a current head of state — the Emir of Qatar — former diplomats and lawmakers, industrialists, and leaders of sports bodies and athletes.
The likely candidates include several members of the IOC's executive board, including vice presidents Nicole Hoevertsz of Aruba and Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. of Spain, whose father was IOC president for 21 years until leaving in 2001 after the Salt Lake turmoil.
Board members Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan and former Olympic champion swimmer Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe are likely entrants in the race.
The IOC never had a woman as president in its 130-year history. One of its members, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, was the president of Croatia for five years until 2020.
Sebastian Coe, the head of track and field's governing body World Athletics, has long been seen as the most qualified contender.
Coe was a two-time Olympic champion in the 1,500 meters, led the organizing committee of the 2012 London Olympics and is a former lawmaker in the British parliament.
However, Coe and Bach who met as athlete representatives in Olympic politics in the 1980s have not been allies in recent years — including over track and field taking tougher stances than the IOC on Russia in its state doping scandal and the invasion of Ukraine.
It unclear if the 68-year-old Coe's candidacy would comply with the IOC's age limit of 70 for members elected since the Salt Lake City reforms.
Bach has increasingly been seen as promoting David Lappartient, the president of the International Cycling Union, in Olympic politics.
Bach gave Lappartient the lead in steering the Olympic body toward video gaming, which saw an Esports Olympic Games deal with Saudi Arabia announced last month. Lappartient also headed a French Alps bid for the 2030 Winter Games which was approved by IOC members on the eve of these Olympics.
In a message Saturday to whomever is his successor, Bach said he would “also be at your disposal with all my passion for our beloved Olympic movement.”
Bach said there would a transition period with his successor before his final day on June 23, when Olympic Day is celebrated.
A gold medalist in fencing for West Germany at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Bach is a lawyer who got his sports politics education with Adidas in the 1980s. He was elected to the IOC in 1991 and helped draft its anti-corruption reforms after the Salt Lake City scandal.
“In order to safeguard the credibility of the IOC we all, and in particular I as your president, have to respect the highest standards of good governance we have set for ourselves,” he said Saturday, explaining why he would comply with its term limits.
Bach won an IOC election of six male candidates in 2013 to succeed Jacques Rogge, a Belgian surgeon and former Olympic sailor who served 12 years after Juan Antonio Samaranch.