The president who regrets not having chosen to be left-handed: 45th anniversary of Thomas Bach’s Olympic gold medal

“I don’t know until today whether I’m a left handed or a right hander”, said the German, a successful fencer in his young years

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(ATR) Thomas Bach spent the day today going from Olympic venue to Olympic venue to take the temperature of the Tokyo Games. But this July 24 is no ordinary day for the IOC president, who on the same date, but 45 years ago, won gold in fencing at the Montreal 76 Games.

The 40th anniversary came in 2016 with a surprising revelation: Bach said he does not know, to this day, whether he is left-handed or right-handed. And he regrets not having chosen to be left-handed, something that in sport usually gives an advantage over the opponent.

In a video posted by the IOC in 2016, the German recalled the problems that an Italian opponent with the surname Montano, to whom he lost at the Canadian Games, used to cause him.

“I always had problems because he was a lefthander, and this was very difficult. At this time we were not used to train with lefthanders and maybe for myself in particular”.

“I don’t know until today whether I’m a left handed or a right hander,” Bach added. “I always regretted this decision at the time and I would have liked to be a lefthander myself.”

Montreal is one of two cities of Bach’s great memories outside Germany. The other is Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, where he was world fencing champion in 1977 and elected IOC president in 2013.

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