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PARIS: Thomas Bach’s eventful 12-year tenure as president of the International Olympic Committee comes to an end on Monday when he hands over the reins to Kirsty Coventry, the first woman and African to hold sport’s most powerful political office.

The 71-year-old German lawyer, a 1976 Olympic team fencing champion, faced many challenges during his time in power.

AFP Sport picks out three:

President Vladimir Putin was the first person to ring Bach to congratulate him on his election in 2013 — little did Bach realize how Russia was to dog his presidency.

The state-sponsored doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and Russia breaking the Olympic Truce twice, in 2014 and 2022, taxed his patience and that of the IOC movement.

Bach faced pressure from both sides before the 2024 Paris Games and in the end permitted Russian athletes to compete despite the invasion of Ukraine, but only after being strictly vetted and under a neutral flag.

For Michael Payne, a former head of IOC marketing, Russia was the “large elephant in the room” and Bach was in a “no-win situation.”

His fellow former IOC marketing executive Terrence Burns, who lived and worked in Russia in the 1990s, said Bach was one of many leaders fooled by Putin.

“On doping he should have been harsher,” Burns told AFP.

“But let’s be honest, the whole thing was almost unbelievable.

“On Ukraine, you were damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

“I don’t think any western government or politician has ever figured out Russia... nor did he.”

Hugh Robertson, now an IOC member and the British sports minister responsible for overseeing the delivery of the highly successful 2012 London Games, believes Bach played his hand well over the Paris Games.

“The balance he struck over Russian participation in Paris was in line with the Olympic Charter,” Robertson told AFP.

“He took very strong action against the government, banned any events in Russia, any national representation and any national symbols.”

Bach had “a very tough presidency and never caught a break” said Payne, but he always held his nerve.

No more so than when Bach resisted calls from within Japan for the Tokyo Games to be canceled, not just postponed to 2021, because of the Covid pandemic.

Payne says Bach’s painful memories of missing the Moscow Games in 1980 due to a boycott linked to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, had left their mark. The German said the IOC would not pull the plug.

In addition, the ramifications of canceling Tokyo would have been enormous for the IOC.

“Think about if Tokyo had not taken place,” said Payne.

“Would Beijing (the 2022 Winter Games) have taken place as well?

“The Olympic movement losing four years is maybe not existential, but boy it would have been tough.”

In the end the Games did go ahead but the majority of athletes performed in empty stadia as local organizers banned spectators.

Burns says it was a tour de force from Bach.

“Honestly, I think it was his sheer willpower that made those Games happen when everyone, and I mean everyone, in the world doubted him,” said the American.

“Japan tried to pull out. He called their bluff. Smart.”

Robertson saw it from “inside the bubble” as he was then chairman of the British Olympic Association (BOA).

“Of course it was a huge disappointment that there were no spectators but a generation of athletes got the chance to compete in an Olympic Games,” said the 62-year-old.

“It probably would not have been the case had Bach not been in charge.

“I think athletes around the world owe Thomas Bach a huge vote of thanks.”

Bach departs with the IOC’s finances in rude health. He has boasted of a “60 percent growth in revenues” during his dozen years at the helm.

Payne says he has indeed increased revenues but the 67-year-old Irishman cautioned that “with increasing revenues partners become more demanding,” adding “just because you have contracts locked up does not mean you do not change and evolve.”

Robertson praises Bach for handing over to Coventry an IOC “in an extremely robust financial position.”

He added the policy of locking sponsors into long-term deals “gave the IOC financial certainty at an exceptionally difficult time and we are seeing the benefit of that now.”

Burns for his part draws on an aphorism of a former US president.

“Ronald Reagan used to say are you better off today than you were four years ago?

“By any measure, Bach enriched the IOC coffers.

“In the end that is all that matters.”

“He will go down as one of the three great IOC presidents along with Pierre de Coubertin and Juan Antonio Samaranch.” — Payne

“A transformational president in unprecedented times.” — Burns

“Thomas Bach had the most difficult deck of cards to play of any IOC president. He has played them exceptionally well and left the IOC stronger than when he took over.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: President Donald Trump has said US forces attacked three Iranian nuclear and military sites, further upping the stakes in the Israel-Iran war.
Trump said the strikes, which he described as “very successful,” had hit the Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan sites, with Fordo being the primary target.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency confirmed there were attacks early Sunday at Iran’s Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites.
IRNA quoted Akbar Salehi, Isfahan’s deputy governor in charge of security affairs, saying there had been attacks around Isfahan and Natanz. He did not elaborate. Another official confirmed an attack targeting Iran’s underground Fordo nuclear site.
Israel launched a surprise barrage of attacks on sites in Iran on June 13, which Israeli officials said was necessary to head off what they claimed was an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs.
Iran, which has long insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, has retaliated with a series of missile and drone strikes in Israel, while Israel has continued to strike sites in Iran.
The US and Iran had been in talks that could have resulted in the US lifting some of its crushing economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran drastically limiting or ending its enrichment of uranium. Until Saturday, Washington had helped shoot down Iranian strikes on Israel but had not launched direct attacks on Iran.
Here’s a look at the sites Trump said the US struck and their importance to Iran’s nuclear program.
Natanz enrichment facility
Iran’s nuclear facility at Natanz, located some 220 kilometers (135 miles) southeast of Tehran, is the country’s main enrichment site and had already been targeted by Israeli airstrikes. Uranium had been enriched to up to 60 percent purity at the site — a mildly radioactive level but a short step away from weapons grade — before Israel destroyed the aboveground part of the facility, according to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Another part of the facility on Iran’s Central Plateau is underground to defend against potential airstrikes. It operates multiple cascades, or groups of centrifuges working together to more quickly enrich uranium. The IAEA has said it believes that most if not all of these centrifuges were destroyed by an Israeli strike that cut off power to the site.
The IAEA said those strikes caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area.
Iran also is burrowing into the Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā, or Pickax Mountain, which is just beyond Natanz’s southern fencing. Natanz has been targeted by the Stuxnet virus, believed to be an Israeli and American creation, which destroyed Iranian centrifuges. Two separate attacks, attributed to Israel, also have struck the facility.
Fordo enrichment facility
Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordo is located some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Tehran. It also hosts centrifuge cascades, but isn’t as big as Natanz. Its construction began at least in 2007, according to the IAEA, although Iran only informed the UN nuclear watchdog about the facility in 2009 after the US and allied Western intelligence agencies became aware of its existence.
Buried under a mountain and protected by anti-aircraft batteries, Fordo appears designed to withstand airstrikes. Military experts have said it could likely only be targeted by “bunker buster” bombs — a term for bombs that are designed to penetrate deep below the surface before exploding — such as the latest GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb in the American arsenal. The roughly 30,000 pound (13,600 kilogram) precision-guided bomb is designed to attack deeply buried and hardened bunkers and tunnels.
The US has only configured and programed its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to deliver that bomb, according to the Air Force. The B-2 is only flown by the Air Force, and is produced by Northrop Grumman, meaning that Washington would have to be involved in such an operation.
Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center
The facility in Isfahan, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Tehran, employs thousands of nuclear scientists. It also is home to three Chinese research reactors and laboratories associated with the country’s atomic program.
Israel has struck buildings at the Isfahan nuclear site, among them a uranium conversion facility. The IAEA said there has been no sign of increased radiation at the site.
Other nuclear sites
Iran has several other sites in its nuclear program that were not announced as targets in the US strikes.
Iran’s only commercial nuclear power plant is in Bushehr on the Arabian Gulf, some 750 kilometers (465 miles) south of Tehran. Iran is building two other reactors like it at the site. Bushehr is fueled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the IAEA.
The Arak heavy water reactor is 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Tehran. Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility to relieve proliferation concerns.
The Tehran Research Reactor is at the headquarters of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the civilian body overseeing the country’s atomic program. It initially required highly enriched uranium but was later retrofitted to use low-enriched uranium over proliferation concerns.