Bri­an Lewis

Eight pres­i­dents since 1894.

Now it's Thomas Bach's turn. Last Tues­day, Bach of Ger­many was elect­ed to lead the In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee (IOC) as Jacques Rogge's tenure came to an end.

In the Ju­ly to Sep­tem­ber edi­tion of the Olympic re­view, the out­go­ing pres­i­dent made the point that one of the great strengths of the Olympic move­ment is its abil­i­ty to adapt to change while ad­her­ing to the tra­di­tions and core val­ues that de­fine the mis­sion of the IOC.

Rogge was em­phat­ic in mak­ing the point that no or­gan­i­sa­tion can sur­vive over time with­out ac­cept­ing change.

He gra­cious­ly ac­knowl­edged that a new IOC pres­i­dent will un­doubt­ed­ly bring more change to the Olympic Move­ment, and went on to say that is how it should be.

In what would be his farewell fore­word, Rogge was both op­ti­mistic and gra­cious in pass­ing the ba­ton of lead­er­ship.

Rogge en­sured that the IOC led the fight against dop­ing and il­le­gal bet­ting while un­der his stew­ard­ship and built up­on the fi­nan­cial plat­form laid down by Juan An­to­nio Sama­ranch.

Since 1894, every IOC pres­i­dent played a part in shap­ing the Olympic Move­ment. Demetrius Vike­las of Greece was ap­point­ed the first IOC pres­i­dent by Baron Pierre de Cou­bertin. Vike­las served as pres­i­dent from 1894 t0 1896. Pierre de Cou­bertin led the IOC from 1896 to 1925. Hen­ri De Bail­let-La­tour, like Rogge a Bel­gian, helmed the IOC from 1925 to 1942.

At the first post war IOC meet­ing, J Sigrid Ed­strom of Swe­den was pres­i­dent from 1946 to 1952.

Amer­i­can Av­ery Brundage was elect­ed in 1952 and dur­ing his 20 years in the post, he is best re­mem­bered for his in­flex­i­bil­i­ty on am­a­teurism.

Irish­man Lord Kil­lanin was thrown in­to the hot seat from 1972 to 1980. His tenure en­com­passed the boy­cotts of the 1976 and 1980 Games.

Then came the Sama­ranch era. Sama­ranch re­struc­tured the IOC fi­nances, over­see­ing tele­vi­sion rights deals and spon­sor­ship pro­grammes. He led the IOC through the Salt Lake ethics cri­sis and un­der­took ma­jor re­forms to the struc­ture of the IOC.

Rogge was con­sid­ered to be the ide­al pres­i­dent to guide the IOC through the post Sama­ranch years. The cre­ation of the Youth Olympic Games is wide­ly con­sid­ered to be his sig­na­ture achieve­ment. Rogge's era will al­so be re­mem­bered for the Bei­jing and Lon­don Sum­mer Olympic Games and the mem­o­rable Van­cou­ver Win­ter Olympic Games. Rogge com­pet­ed in sail­ing at the Olympic Games in Mex­i­co in 1968, Mu­nich in 1972 and Mon­tre­al in 1976. He was al­so a mem­ber of the Bel­gian na­tion­al rug­by team. The oth­er Olympian in the gallery of pres­i­dents is Brundage.

Bach, how­ev­er, is the first gold medal­ist to be elect­ed pres­i­dent. Those who elect­ed him would have high ex­pec­ta­tions that the wealth of his ex­pe­ri­ence both as an ath­lete and sport ad­min­is­tra­tor will pro­vide him with the lead­er­ship qual­i­ties need­ed to guide the com­plex be­he­moth that is the Olympic move­ment.

The IOC and the glob­al Olympic move­ment will face myr­i­ad chal­lenges and from all cor­ners. There are a num­ber of is­sues that re­quire at­ten­tion. But the ma­jor chal­lenge fac­ing the Olympic Move­ment is a boom­ing cyn­i­cism and prag­ma­tism that is slow­ly drain­ing away the pas­sion and en­thu­si­asm for the foun­da­tion­al phi­los­o­phy of Olymp­ism and the core Olympic val­ues, ideals and spir­it.

The cor­ri­dors of pow­er are al­leged­ly cov­ered in agen­das that have very lit­tle to do with the vi­sion and am­bi­tion of Baron Pierre de Cou­bertin and the fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ples of Olymp­ism.

The IOC and the Olympic move­ment are for some mere means to an end. Bach's most pow­er­ful chal­lenge will be those who are on­ly pay­ing lip ser­vice to the Olympic val­ues, spir­it and ideals. His lega­cy may well be de­ter­mined by his will­ing­ness and abil­i­ty to stop the slow but gath­er­ing ero­sion of the Olympic val­ues, ideals and spir­it.

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