Thomas Bach has been elected as the new president of the International Olympic Committee on the final day of the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 59-year-old German, a fencing gold medallist at the 1976 Olympics, had been favourite to take over from Jacques Rogge, who has been at the helm since 2001. The new president was elected after just two rounds of voting. A lawyer by profession, Bach has been a member of the executive board since 1996 and vice president from 2000-4 and since 2006. In becoming the ninth IOC head, he saw off opposition from five other candidates, including former pole vaulter Sergey Bubka, a vice president of the IAAF. Bubka’s losing out leaves him free to challenge Seb Coe for the presidency of the IAAF in 2015. Bach, whose campaign slogan was “Unity in Diversity”, had suggested that, if selected, a revision of the Olympics bidding process may be on the cards. The announcement of the new president came on the same day that nine new IOC members were elected, including Sweden’s 2004 Olympic high jump champion Stefan Holm and Kenya’s former marathon world record-holder Paul Tergat. The nine additions means the Session, which is the decision-making body of the IOC, now has a total of 112 members.