Olympic president Thomas Bach urged by some IOC members to extend term limit, seek 4 more years

Russia and China have done it for their heads of state. Now some International Olympic Committee members want to change term-limit rules and norms to keep their long-time leader in office.

IOC president Thomas Bach was urged by several members Sunday to change Olympic statutes on term limits and seek four more years as president through 2029.

Bach's presidency is due to end in 2025 — a 12-year maximum agreed in anti-corruption reforms passed after the Salt Lake City bid scandal broke in the 1990s.

However, citing the recent years of global crises, several of the 99 International Olympic Committee members opened their annual meeting Sunday suggesting they needed more of Bach's leadership that started in 2013.

The Olympic movement needed "to go through this period of torment with a president who has proved his mettle," said the Algerian leader of African Olympic bodies, Mustapha Berraf.

"We really need to be able to rely on the leadership you have shown," said IOC member Luis Mejia Oviedo of the Dominican Republic, in praise echoed by colleagues from Paraguay and Djibouti.

Though Bach has never publicly sought a term limit-busting third mandate, the option has been spoken of in international sports circles since he was re-elected in 2021 at a meeting held remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The IOC gives its president a first term of eight years.

"I cannot hide how that went straight to my heart," Bach told IOC members of their support at its meeting being held in Mumbai, India.

Bach neither encouraged nor dismissed the proposal though noted the presidential term limit is enshrined in the IOC's book of rules and principles.

"I'm very loyal to the Olympic Charter," the German lawyer said. "Being a co-author of this