IOC President Bach encourages everyone to stay strong

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach took to his bike to stay active and encouraged everyone to use sport and physical activity to keep healthy.

In a video message released on Sunday (5th April 2020), the Montreal 1976 gold-medal winning fencer responded to the restrictions placed on much of the planet due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, saying, "We all have, every day, to find new ways to stand through this crisis."

With athletes around the world offering their home workouts on Olympic Channel, Bach added, "Monday 6th April is the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, one reason more to get active, to play sport and one reason more to look forward to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 which, because of the situation we are in now, we will celebrate next year."

The message comes less than a week after the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organisers confirmed the next Olympic Games would be postponed by almost exactly a year, to start on 23rd July 2021.

With much of the world's population staying at home in an effort to halt the spread of the pandemic, President Bach commented, "If you are staying active, if you are staying strong, if you are staying healthy, we can celebrate them all together as a great festival of our resilience, as a great festival of our solidarity, and as a great festival of the unity of humankind in all of our diversity."

"Sport and physical activity can play an important role – an important role for staying strong and for staying healthy, but also to get ready for the day after this crisis, for the day we are all longing for, when we can resume our professional and social life, and for the day when finally we can hug each other again and can play sport together again," he said.

Bach ended by returning to his workout, and saying, "Stay active, stay strong, stay healthy and come on. Here we go.