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Olympic champion Thomas Bach has been re-elected for an additional four-year term as President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the 137th IOC Session held virtually today. 
Thomas Bach, who won gold with the German foil fencing team at the Olympic Games Montreal 1976, was elected as IOC President at the IOC Session in 2013 in Buenos Aires for a first eight-year term. This term will finish on the closing day of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 on 8 August this year. His second term as IOC President will start immediately after, and will conclude in 2025. Bach received 93 votes in his favor of his re-election, and 1 vote against.
 
Reacting to his re-election, Bach said, “Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for this overwhelming vote of confidence and trust. For me, this is even more overwhelming considering the many reforms and the many difficult decisions we had to take, which affected all of us. You know that this touches me deeply. It also makes me humble. When you elected me for the first time as your President in 2013 in Buenos Aires, I said that I wanted to lead the IOC according to my campaign motto ‘Unity in diversity’ and be a President for all of you and for all our stakeholders. This commitment is also true for my second and last term. My door, my ears and my heart remain open for each and every one of you. I hope that I can count on your continued dedication, support and friendship also during these four more years.”
 
In his acceptance speech addressing the IOC Members, Bach said, “In the meantime, you know me well enough that I would also like to look forward and continue to achieve ambitious goals with you also in the post-coronavirus world. We learned during this coronavirus crisis, the hard way, that we can live up to our Olympic slogan ‘faster, higher, stronger’, in sport and in life, only if we are working together in solidarity. Therefore, I would today like to inspire a discussion – a discussion with you and everybody interested in the Olympic community – on whether we should not complement this slogan by adding, after a hyphen, the word ‘together’: ‘Faster, higher, stronger – together’. This could be – from my point of view – a strong commitment to our core value of solidarity, and an appropriate and a humble adaptation to the challenges of this new world.”
 
As an athlete, Thomas Bach was a world-class fencer, winning an Olympic gold medal. He also won two gold medals with the German foil fencing team at the World Championships in 1976 and 1977. He was a founding member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission in 1981, on which he remained until 1988. In 1991, he became an IOC Member and sat on the IOC Executive Board between 1996 and 2013. He served as IOC Vice-President from 2000 to 2004, 2006 to 2010, and from 2010 until his election as IOC President in September 2013.
 
During his presidency, Thomas Bach received the prestigious Seoul Peace Prize and was awarded the Cem - Papandreou Peace Award. He was also the main driving force behind Olympic Agenda 2020.
 
Bach has proven to be a polarizing figure outside of the International Olympic Committee. His reforms of the Olympic Movement have found both avid supporters and vocal critics. With his re-election, the International Olympic Committee has reaffirmed their commitment to Bach’s agenda, and his reforms for governance, gender equality, and sustainability.
 

The International Floorball Federation has launched a new fan survey, with the chance for fans to win a prize.
 
The new fan survey centers around the topic of sustainability. The IFF hopes to discern the views of the greater floorball community on environmental sustainability, in order to drive future initiatives related to the sport.
 
The IFF has partnered with the Glion Institute for Higher Education in order to carry out the survey. Students at the school composed the questions for the survey, and will also perform analysis on the results.
 
UNIHOC, a sponsor of the International Floorball Federation, will support the survey by giving participants a chance to win one of their SUPERSKIN sticks.
 
The survey closes on January 28th. You can participate in the survey by clicking here.
 

The women’s water polo tournament at the 2020 Olympics has been decided with the results of the Women’s Water Polo Olympic Qualification Tournament. The two finalists of the eight-team tournament qualified to the games. The format included a round robin group stage where all eight teams advanced to the quarterfinals. The event was held in Trieste, Italy from January 19th to January 24th 2021.
 
A draw between the Netherlands and Italy (7-7) saw the two nations finished atop of Group A with five points each. With a better goal differential, it was Italy who finished first in the group. Third place was won by France who fought off a second quarter comeback by Slovakia to win the match 17-9.
 
Group B came down to Greece and Hungary as the two nations had back-to-back victories over Israel (20-1 and 27-2 respectively) and Kazakhstan (13-5 and 23-6 respectively). In the deciding match, it was Greece which finished with an 8-5 victory. The third-place match of the group between Israel and Kazakhstan ended in a 7-7 draw and thus the latter finished ahead due to goal differential.
 
The quarterfinals saw no upsets as the four European powerhouses dispatched their opponents. The Netherlands defeated Kazakhstan 19-6, Greece won over Slovakia 22-3, Hungary finished ahead of France 20-7 and Italy was the victor over Israel 15-6.
 
The semifinals and the Olympic qualification deciding matches saw Greece take an early lead over the Netherlands where they held a 4-3 advantage at half-time. However, the Netherlands were able to prevent Greece from scoring again as they won the match 7-4. The second Olympic quota was won by Hungary who took a 3-1 first quarter lead over Italy and thanks to a six-goal effort by Rita Keszthelyi, won the match 13-10.
 
The final and bragging rights was won by Hungary who defeated the Netherlands 13-11. Third place went to Greece as they won over Italy 10-4.
 
This will be the Netherlands’ first Olympic appearance since winning the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. The team will be hoping to repeat that performance at the 2020 Olympics. Hungary on the other hand, will be looking to win their first Olympic medal after finishing fourth at the previous three Olympics. This completes the Olympic roster for the women’s water polo teams. The final men’s teams will be decided at their respective Olympic qualification tournament scheduled to be held in February.
 
Qualified Nations
 
Women's Tournament
Hungary
Netherlands