Thomas Bach will be replacing Jacques Rogge to serve as the new president for the next eight years

Thomas Bach was announced the new president of the International Olympic Committee at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires on Tuesday.

Bach will be replacing Jacques Rogge, who is retiring after his 12-year tenure as the head of Olympic sports.
Bach, a 59-year-old lawyer from Germany and a former Olympic gold medalist in fencing, won by a majority, receiving 49 votes in the final round. Bach was chosen over five other presidential candidate including Sergey Bubka from Ukraine and Richard Carrion from Puerto Rico.

“Thank you very much to all of you,” said Bach following his election. “Let us, this great universal orchestra of IOC members,  play together in harmony towards a bright future for the Olympic Movement under the leadership of the IOC.”

IOC is the governing body that over looks all of the Olympic movement. The organization is in charge of celebrating the educational value of the athletics through hosting the olympic every four years.

Bach will serve an eight year term as the 9th president of the IOC, with possibility to stand for re-election in his fourth year before starting the second term.

Despite being the most prestigious and successful institution in the world, IOC has suffered multiple setbacks in the past decades, notably the commercialization of the organization in the 1980s, bribery and various doping scandals.  

Solving corruptions committed by some members of IOC will be one of the biggest challenges during Bach’s presidency.

Other challenges include maintaining IOC’s stable financial status from broadcast revenue, global influence from the “new media” expansion, and most importantly, hosting a successful winter olympic in Sochi next year.

Reach Executive Producer Taiu Kunimoto here and follow him on Twitter.