Thomas Bach was born on 29 December 1953 in Würzburg, Germany. Married and a lawyer by profession, he has had a successful career in sports both on and off the field of play. He became an Olympic champion when he won a gold medal in fencing (team foil) at the Games of the XXI Olympiad in Montreal in 1976 and in 2006, he was named as the founding President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).

Thomas Bach was an athletes’ representative at the XI Olympic Congress in Baden-Baden (1981) and a founding member of the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission. He became an IOC member in 1991, was elected as a member of the IOC Executive Board in 1996 and served as an IOC Vice-President for more than 10 years. He has also chaired several IOC Commissions.

On 10 September 2013, Thomas Bach was elected as the ninth President of the IOC. He was re-elected for a second four-year term on 10 March 2021.

Studies in Law and Politics, University of Würzburg (Germany) (1973-1978); Further Law formation (1978-1982); Ph.D. in Law (1983)

Founder of own law firm (1982); Director for Promotion, Adidas (1985-1987); Chairman of the SME Advisory Board of the Federal Minister for Economics (1988-1990); Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Michael Weinig AG (1998-) and Weinig International AG (2000-); Member of the Board of Administration of Siemens Schweiz AG (2000-2009); President of the Ghorfa Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (2006-2013); Chairman of the Advisory Board of Melius GmbH (2008-2013); Member of the Supervisory Board of Nürnberger Versicherung AG Austria (2009-2013); Chairman of the Advisory Board of Bartec GmbH (2009-2013)

Fencing, tennis, football

Olympic champion, fencing, men’s foil team, Montreal 1976; World Champion, fencing, men’s foil team, Montreal 1976 and Buenos Aires 1977

Chairman of the Athletes' Commission of the German Committee for Competitive Sport in the German Sports Confederation (DSB) (1979-1981); Athletes’ representative at the 11th Olympic Congress, Baden-Baden (Germany) (1981); Founding member of the IOC Athletes' Commission (1981-1988); Individual Member of the National Olympic Committee of Germany (1982-1991); Chairman of the Appeals division of the Court of Arbitration for sport (CAS) (1994-2013); Member of the Supervisory Board of the Organising Committee of the 2006 FIFA World Cup; Founding President (2006-2013) then Honorary President (2013-) of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB); Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Organising Committee of the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup (2007-2011); Chairman of the International Olympic Truce Foundation (IOTF) (2013-)

Various publications on law, economics, and sports

Numerous Honorary Professorships in different countries; numerous Doctor Honoris Causa degrees in different countries; numerous orders of Merit from various National Olympic committees and International Sports Organisations; numerous high-level distinctions from various States

Member (1996-2000) of the IOC Executive Board then Vice-President (2000-2004) and re-elected as Vice-President (2006-2013); IOC President (2013-); Chair of the following Commissions: Evaluation for the XIX Olympic Winter Games (1994-1995), Evaluation for the Games of XXVIII Olympiad (1995-1997), Juridical (2002-2014), Sport and Law (2002-2014), TV Rights and New Media (2014-2015); member of the following Commissions: Athletes’ (1981-1988), Press (1985-1988), Marketing (1992-2014), Juridical (1993-2001), Olympic Collectors (1994-1997), Olympic Movement (1996-1999), Sport and Law (as Athletes’ representative, 1995-2001), TV Rights and New Media (2002-2014), IOC 2000 Reform Follow-up (2002); Coordinator of the Working Group “Role of the IOC” of the “IOC 2000” Commission (1999); Remuneration Working Group (2004); Chair of the board of directors of the Olympic Channel Services S.A., Switzerland (2015-2021)