Thomas BACH

Thomas Bach won an Olympic gold medal with the West German foil team at the 1976 Montréal Games. In 1973, he was runner-up with the foil team at the World Championships and earned a team gold medal in 1976, which he defended with his team one year later at Buenos Aires. In 1979 the team won the bronze medal. Nationally, Bach became German Champion in the 1978 individual foil, and won the European Cup of national champions of foil teams the same year.

Bach studied law and political sciences at the University of Würzburg. Bach made a career as an economic adviser for the German liberal party FDP, first in West Germany and after the German reunification in Dresden under the Trust Society for the settlement of East German companies. After that, he became an influential sports leader - from 1975-79 he was Fencing Athletes’ Representative in Germany, from 1981-88 IOC Athletes' Representative, from 1982-91 he was a personal member of the West German NOC, in 1985 he became Director of International Relations at adidas, in 1998 was appointed chairman of the supervisory board of Michael Weinig AG at Tauberbischofsheim, and in 1991 he was elected to the IOC.