New IOC president faces challenging 1st Games

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach waves as he eats lunch with athletes in the coastal Athlete's Village at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics February 1, 2014.  [Photo/Agencies]

The issues will be put up for debate among the 100-plus IOC members at the general assembly next week. Afterward, proposals and recommendations will be drawn up and submitted for approval at a special IOC session in December in Monaco.

Bach has espoused a more flexible system for deciding which sports are in the Summer Olympics. Rogge imposed a cap of 28 sports and 10,500 athletes for the games. IOC leaders are now considering whether the 28-sport limit should be scrapped, reducing disciplines and events within existing sports to allow for new sports to come in.

The move is driven by the fallout from last year's surprising decision to drop wrestling, then reinstate it several months later, defeating the original plan of adding a new sport for 2020. Baseball-softball and squash were left out in the cold.

Bach has said that baseball-softball could still be included in the 2020 Tokyo Games because of the popularity of those sports in Japan. That will require changes in the Olympic rules.

A hot topic promises to be whether to reinstate member visits to bid cities. Those were banned in the wake of the Salt Lake City scandal, in which 10 members resigned or were expelled for accepting inducements. Many members feel it's time to bring back visits in organized groups and paid for by the IOC.

For now, though, Bach's focus is on making Sochi a success.

"So far he has dealt with all the pressures in an exemplary fashion," IOC vice president Craig Reedie of Britain said. "While there inevitably will be more pressures on him the next 16-17 days, I'm sure he will come through it with flying colors."