International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach should not seek to extend his IOC Presidency beyond 2025, according to outgoing IOC Member Richard Pound ©Getty Images

Former International Olympic Committee (IOC) doyen Richard Pound has advised Thomas Bach against seeking to extend his IOC Presidency beyond 2025.

Asked by insidethegames in an interview whether he would advise Bach not to seek to extend his term beyond 12 years, Pound - whose stint as a full IOC member ended yesterday (December 31) after 44 years - replied: "I do not have the sense that Bach intends to try to amend the Olympic Charter in order to extend his Presidency.

"Were he to ask for my advice, I would counsel him against such an action."

Under the current Olympic Charter, the President is elected by IOC members for a term of eight years, renewable once, for four years.

Bach, a German lawyer and the ninth IOC President, was originally elected to succeed Belgium’s Jacques Rogge in Buenos Aires in September 2013.

He was re-elected in March 2021.

Thomas Bach was elected as IOC President in 2013 in place of Jacques Rogge and is set to lead the organisation until 2025 ©Getty Images
Thomas Bach was elected as IOC President in 2013 in place of Jacques Rogge and is set to lead the organisation until 2025 ©Getty Images

Whether or not he does step down in 2025, there seems a good chance that the 10th IOC President will be the 128-year-old organisation’s first woman head.

Both Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe and Nicole Hoevertsz of Aruba seem plausible candidates for the succession.

Possible male Presidential candidates might include World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, Neven Ilic, Chilean President of Panam Sports, and perhaps Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish son of the former IOC President of the same name, and Sergey Bubka, the one-time pole-vault champion.

All nine IOC Presidents to date have been white men, eight of them Europeans.

The campaign messaging of any candidate to succeed Bach who is not a European male would accordingly more or less write itself.

Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry is widely seen as a plausible candidate to succeed Thomas Bach as IOC President, which would make her the organisation's first female President ©Getty Images
Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry is widely seen as a plausible candidate to succeed Thomas Bach as IOC President, which would make her the organisation's first female President ©Getty Images

However, the European quotient of voting IOC members currently remains over 40 per cent, so it would appear rash to discount the possibility of yet another European leader emerging.

Asked what qualities the next IOC President would need, Pound - undoubtedly the most important IOC member in history not to have been elected President - responded: "The Olympic Movement needs a leader who can communicate".

This was because "a successful Movement involves creating and maintaining a consensus (internal and external) on the inherent values of sport and Olympism".

He added: "Communication consists of listening as much as (or more than) speaking".

The second and final part of our wide-ranging and characteristically straight-talking interview with Pound can be found here.