Thomas Bach

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IOC President Thomas Bach speaks to media during a visit to the National Stadium, the main venue for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games postponed until July 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, in Tokyo Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. Bach said during this week's trip to Tokyo that he is “encouraging” all Olympic “participants” and fans to be vaccinated - if one becomes available - if they are going to attend next year's Tokyo Olympics. (Behrouz Mehri/Pool Photo via AP)

Tokyo Olympics: Q&A on vaccines, fans, qualifying and costs

By STEPHEN WADE - Associated Press

People wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walk underpass in Tokyo, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Tokyo sees record number of new cases amid nationwide spike

By MARI YAMAGUCHI - Associated Press

Thomas Bach, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, speaks during the joint press conference between IOC and Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) in Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 16, 2020. Olympic participants and fans arriving for next year's postponed Tokyo Olympics are likely to face requirements to be vaccinated to protect the Japanese public, Bach said Monday after meeting with new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. (Du Xiaoyi/Pool Photo via AP) **FILE**

IOC President Thomas Bach issues gentle plea for Olympians to get vaccinated

By Stephen Wade - Associated Press

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, right, greets International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach during their meeting in Tokyo Monday, Nov. 16, 2020. (Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool Photo via AP)

Bach: Tokyo Olympic ‘participants’ encouraged to get vaccine

By STEPHEN WADE - Associated Press

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach gestures on his arrival at a hotel in Tokyo Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020. IOC President Bach is beginning a visit to Tokyo to convince politicians and the Japanese public that the postponed Olympics will open in just over eight months.(Kyodo News via AP)

Bach comes to Tokyo as cheerleader for next year’s Olympics

By STEPHEN WADE - Associated Press

Dimitrii Lankin of Russia competes in the parallel bars of an international gymnastics meet in Tokyo on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. Gymnasts from four countries of China, Russia, U.S. and Japan performed in the meet at Yoyogi National Stadium First Gymnasium, a venue planned to be used in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the summer 2021. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Olympic leaders raise hopes for safe Tokyo Games with fans

By GRAHAM DUNBAR - Associated Press

IOC President Thomas Bach waits for the podium ceremony for the women's elite event at the road cycling World Championships in Imola, Italy on Sept. 26, 2020. Organizers of a South Korean award say International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has decided not to visit in person this week and accept the prize because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Bach was named winner of the Seoul Peace Prize last month and was to receive the award on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

IOC’s Bach to skip Seoul ceremony, cites travel concerns

Associated Press

People with old Belarusian national flags gather during an opposition rally to protest the presidential inauguration in Minsk, Belarus, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has been sworn in to his sixth term in office at an inaugural ceremony that was not announced in advance amid weeks of huge protests saying the authoritarian leader's reelection was rigged. Hundreds took to the streets in several cities in the evening to protest the inauguration. (AP Photo/TUT.by)

IOC investigating athlete claims of reprisals in Belarus

By GRAHAM DUNBAR - Associated Press

IOC President Thomas Bach waits for the podium ceremony for the women's elite event, at the road cycling World Championships, in Imola, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

IOC president warns Italy over government interference

By ANDREW DAMPF - Associated Press

FILE - In this May 4, 2019, file photo, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, right, is presented with the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) President's trophy by AOC president John Coates at the AOC annual general meeting in Sydney, Australia. The only thing more difficult than staging next year's Tokyo Olympics in a pandemic might be convincing sponsors to keep their billions on board in the midst of economic turbulence and skepticism. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

Tokyo needs to convince sponsors Olympics will really happen

By STEPHEN WADE - Associated Press

FILE - In this March 25, 2020, file photo, Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), attends an interview after the decision to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Bach suggested that the Tokyo Olympics are a moving target. (Denis Balibouse/Keystone via AP, File)

Tokyo Olympic Q&A: Few answers yet with about 300 days to go

By STEPHEN WADE - Associated Press

A man wearing a mask walks on a pedestrian bridge over the train tracks Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020, in Tokyo as a large display of Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics games are seen in the background. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

Bach: Vaccines won’t be ‘silver bullet’ for staging Olympics

Associated Press

Human rights groups ask IOC to move Olympics from China

By Stephen Wade - Associated Press

FILE - In this July 23, 2020, file photo, Japanese swimming athlete Rikako Ikee holding the lantern containing Olympic flame poses during a photo session at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. Friday, July 31, would have been the seventh full day of the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics; almost the halfway point. The focus is now entirely on how to pull off the games next year, in what still might be the middle of a pandemic. (Du Xiaoyi/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Heat! What heat? Tokyo Olympics would have been on cool side

By STEPHEN WADE - Associated Press

FILE - In this June 3, 2020, photo, the Olympic rings float in the water at sunset in the Odaiba section in Tokyo. The Japanese public is being prepared for the reality of next year's postponed Olympics where athletes are likely to face quarantines, spectators will be fewer, and the delay will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. In the last several weeks, IOC President Thomas Bach has given selected interviews outside Japan and hinted at empty stadiums, quarantines and virus testing. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

IOC postpones Dakar Youth Olympics by 4 years to 2026

By GRAHAM DUNBAR - Associated Press

FILE - In this March 4, 2020, file photo, people wearing masks walk past the Olympic rings near the New National Stadium in Tokyo. It's been 2 1/2 months since the Tokyo Olympics were postponed until next year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So where do the games stand? So far, many ideas about how the Olympic can take place are being floated by the International Olympic Committee, Japanese officials and politicians, and in unsourced Japanese newspaper articles coming from local organizers and politicians. The focus is on soaring costs, fans, or no fans, possible quarantines for athletes, and cutting back to only “the essentials.&quot; (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Q&A: State of Tokyo Olympics 2 1/2 months after postponement

By STEPHEN WADE - Associated Press

In this March 3, 2020, file photo, the New National Stadium, a venue for the opening and closing ceremonies at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, is seen from Shibuya Sky observation deck in Tokyo. The Tokyo Olympics were postponed a month ago. But there are still more questions than answers about the new opening on July 23, 2021, and what form those games will take. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Tokyo Olympics: Questions, few answers in face of pandemic

By Stephen Wade - Associated Press

FILE - In this May 4, 2019, file photo, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach speaks at the Australian Olympic Committee annual general meeting in Sydney, Australia. During an interview with a German newspaper Sunday, April 12, 2020, Bach says the International Olympic Committee will face “several hundred million dollars”of added costs because of the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics until next year. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

Delay costs IOC ‘several hundred million’; Japan pays rest

By STEPHEN WADE - Associated Press

Q&A: Tokyo Olympics move to 2021; countless questions remain

By STEPHEN WADE - Associated Press

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), attends an interview after the decision to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Wednesday, March 25, 2020. (Denis Balibouse/Keystone via AP)

Bach invokes Trump in defense of Olympic decision

By GRAHAM DUNBAR - Associated Press