On September 10, Thomas Bach of Germany was elected as the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Bach will replace outgoing chief Jacques Rogge of Belgium. He will serve an eight-year term, with an option of running for an additional four-year term.
Olympic fencing gold medalist and German lawyer, Bach held important posts including the founding President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation(DOSB), a member of the IOC Executive Board, and an IOC Vice-President.
IOC President, though not paid, wields influence on the global stage, leading the IOC Session and the IOC Executive Board, and organizing the Olympic Games in cooperation with National Olympic Committees (NOCs).
In winning the post, Bach beat out five other candidates: Ser Miang Ng of Singapore, Ching-Kuo Wu of Chinese Taipei, Richard Carrión of Puerto Rico, Denis Oswald of Switzerland, and Sergey Bubka of Ukraine. The lineup of IOC presidential candidates was the longest ever. With the declaration of candidacy by Ser Miang Ng and Ching-Kuo Wu, expectations were high for the IOC to produce the first Asian president. However, they were defeated by Europe's Bach.
The 125th IOC Session selected Tokyo as host of 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Wrestling easily defeated bids from baseball-softball and squash to regain its place in the list of 26 "core" sports for 2020.
