New Olympics boss faces multitude of challenges

The head of the International Olympic Committee is the pinnacle of sport. But that does not put the new IOC president, Thomas Bach, above the Olympic motto - Faster, Higher, Stronger. He will be under pressure to maintain the committee's revenue growth after a series of stellar increases, and to keep the Games ahead of the cheats who have stalked their integrity for decades.

Testament to the power and prestige of the IOC chief is that when the 59-year-old German was voted into the job last week, one of his first phone calls was from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who promised co-operation to ensure the Sochi Winter Olympics in February are a success, despite concerns about cost overruns in a US$50 billion budget, human rights, security threats and a Western backlash against a Russian law on gay "propaganda".

Sochi is just one of the headaches in a huge role that Bach has taken on for at least the next eight years, until after the Tokyo summer games in 2020. The bigger challenge will be ensuring that a foot-dragging Rio de Janeiro will be ready in time for the 2016 summer games.

It is away from Olympic arenas, however, that the 1976 fencing gold medallist and IOC insider will face issues that could determine his legacy as leader of the Olympic movement. It remains critical to tackle cheating through doping and match-fixing, and corruption through illegal betting. With fresh doping scandals involving some of the world's top sprinters, drugs in sport remain the biggest challenge 15 years after establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

That said, outgoing president Belgian Jacques Rogge restored the image of the IOC after it was badly tarnished during the reign of Juan Antonio Samaranch over the bribes for votes scandal in the successful Salt Lake City bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics. And the Olympic movement is healthier than ever, with more than US$1 billion in reserves, after successful summer games in London and Beijing.