GENEVA — Thomas Bach was re-elected as president of the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday for a final four-year term with his immediate focus on this year’s delayed Tokyo Games.
The German lawyer was unopposed and won the vote 93-1, with four members abstaining, following an opening eight-year mandate dominated by the Russian doping scandal and the first Olympics to be postponed in peacetime.
“Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for this overwhelming vote of confidence and trust,” Bach said during an online meeting of IOC members.
Bach said Tokyo was “the best prepared Olympic city ever” and reiterated the Games would open on July 23 despite restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The question is not whether, the question is how these Olympic Games will take place,” he said.
Because of the pandemic, Bach spoke to a wall of screens connecting members online instead of at a meeting scheduled for June in Athens.
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