Thomas Bach

The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday came under increased pressure to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination and ensure future host countries do not have discriminatory laws on their books.

SOCHI, Russia — International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach accused world leaders Tuesday of using the Sochi Olympics as a political platform “on the backs of the athletes,” and of snubbing the games without even being invited.

SOCHI, Russia — International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach says heavy security and criticism of Russia’s anti-gay law will not detract from the Sochi Olympics.

SOCHI, Russia — A day after the head of the Sochi organizing committee appeared to contradict International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach on the rights of Olympic athletes to freely express themselves at news conferences, organizers issued a back-pedaling statement Thursday “to clarify” their position.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — IOC President Thomas Bach said Russia will set up public protest zones in Sochi during the Winter Olympics, a move unlikely to defuse criticism of the country’s human rights record and a recent law banning gay “propaganda.”

PARIS — IOC President Thomas Bach met with Russian gay rights activists who urged an investigation before the Sochi Olympics into national laws banning “gay propaganda.”

MOSCOW — International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach is confident that all athletes and visitors at the Winter Olympics in Sochi will be treated equally regardless of “race, gender or sexual orientation.”

MOSCOW — Russian gay activists say the new president of the International Olympic Committee refused to meet with them while visiting the 2014 Winter Games city of Sochi.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — New IOC President Thomas Bach will be tested quickly by two troublesome Olympics: the Winter Games less than five months away in the southern Russian resort of Sochi, and the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro — still three years away but setting off alarms.