Thomas Bach Quote Box

Thomas Bach Quote Box

Published Sep. 10, 2013 7:59 p.m. ET

Quotes from Thomas Bach after being elected Tuesday as the ninth president of the International Olympic Committee.

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On the campaign: ''I was running my own campaign in favor of me. And I wanted to convince the members about my ideas and my personality. And I haven't been talking with any member about any other candidate. And I will not do so after the election. ... I want to be a president for all. My door is open.''

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On the Sochi Olympics: ''From next week on, I will work in Lausanne to try to ensure the great success of the Sochi Games, which I am sure we will have. But there is only five months to go so we will work hard on this.''

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On the Rio de Janeiro Olympics: ''We will work very closely with the Brazilian authorities and the organizing committee to make Rio a success. And I'm already looking forward to seeing a great, emotional and successful games in Rio de Janeiro.''

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On his election: ''This was extremely emotional. As an athlete, when you finish your competition, you know the result. And here I had to wait for more than an hour to know the result. And then the reaction in this room was really so emotional. ... I think this was one of the most emotional moments in my life.''

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On the Olympic sports program: ''We think we should deal with it pretty quickly to see whether it will, or can still, affect Tokyo (2020). ...You have seen here that it's a rather complicated procedure. But the composition of the program I think will be one of the first priorities.''

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On the future: ''We have to work on the sustainability and feasibility of the games, take care of the credibility and integrity of the sports organizations and then give IOC members more possibilities to take part in the decision making.''

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On youth: ''It's not enough for youth to be consuming sport on the Internet. It's our goal to motivate them to practice more sport.''

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On his approach: ''I know the great responsibility of an IOC president. This makes me humble. I want to lead the IOC according to my motto: Unity and Diversity.''

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