Thomas Bach Reelected as IOC President Through 2025 After Unopposed Bid

Du Xiaoyi/Associated Press

Thomas Bach was reelected as president of the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday. 

Per Graham Dunbar of the Associated Press, Bach will serve in the role through 2025 after running for reelection unopposed. 

"Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for this overwhelming vote of confidence and trust," Bach told IOC members. 

A former Olympic gold medal winner in 1976 as part of the West Germany foil team, Bach was elected president of the IOC in September 2013. He defeated Sergey Bubka, Richard Carrion, Ser Miang Ng, and Denis Oswald in the final round by receiving 49 out of 93 votes. 

Bach has presided over the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2018 Winter Olympics, and he oversaw the punishment of members of the Russian Federation after an investigation into a large-scale, state-sponsored doping scheme. He also announced, along with Japan prime minister Abe Shinzo, the postponement of the 2020 Games in Tokyo last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While there has been some uncertainty if the Tokyo Games would take place this summer, Bach said on Wednesday's call that he remains confident they will happen. 

"The question is not whether, the question is how these Olympic Games will take place," he said.

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Per Blake Essig of CNN.com, Japan only started administering COVID-19 vaccinations on Feb. 17 and government officials said as of Feb. 27 only 18,000 doses had been given out. The country has a population of 126 million people. 

The Tokyo Olympics are currently scheduled to run from July 23-Aug. 8.