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President-Elect Donald Trump will be in his final year in office in 2028 when the Olympics return to the United States for the first time since 1996 and will be tasked with helping lead the charge for the Summer Games making their way to Los Angeles. That reality likely isn’t one that International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach saw coming.

Bach and Trump met in June 2017 at the White House to discuss the bidding process to bring the Olympics to Los Angeles in 2028, and the IOC President didn’t speak kindly of the then-President following their meeting.

“Pray for our world,” Bach was heard to say on a cellphone call later that day in Washington, D.C.

Walking away from a meeting with the President in which you discussed bringing a sporting event to the United States by saying “pray for our world” is as dramatic a quote one could ever come up with, but now Bach is tasked with walking back his infamous critique of Trump.

He recently praised the President-Elect following their first interactions since Trump dominantly won the Presidential Election over Kamala Harris.

“We are very confident there with regard to the steps and efforts being undertaken,” Bach said at a news conference after an executive board meeting of the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland. “We saw also that President-elect Trump repeatedly declared his support for the games, which we never had any doubt because he has declared this support from the very beginning

Donald Trump will attend the Army/Navy game at Northwest Stadium on December 14th. What are the details? (Credit: Getty Images)

Donald Trump will attend the Army/Navy game at Northwest Stadium on December 14th. What are the details? (Credit: Getty Images)

Bach also noted that Olympic leaders are “very confident and relaxed” about working with Trump ahead of the 2028 Games.

Bach is set to leave his post after 2025, therefore it may be easier for him to swallow his pride with regards to his disagreements with the President-Elect.

In terms of disagreements between the pair, the biggest seems to be their stances on transgender athletes being eligible to compete in the Olympics.

Trump has pledged to ban trans athletes from competing in women’s sports. Bach made it abundantly clear that he has no issue with the topic after defending boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting participating in the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Khelif and Yu-ting both won gold medals in women’s boxing despite failing gender-eligibility tests at previous international competitions.