Thomas Bach preparing to leave IOC top job with a 'clear conscience' after 12 years

As he approaches his final week in the sporting world's top job, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach is feeling relaxed.

When a new IOC president is elected Thursday, and Bach formally leaves the role in June, it will be with a "clear conscience," the outgoing boss told reporters this week inside a Greek resort where IOC members will pick his successor.

"It's the period during all my presidency where I do not have an existential problem for the Olympic movement or the Olympic Games on my desk," Bach, who has held the top job in global sport since 2013, said on Monday.

Those challenges have ranged from a global pandemic impacting two separate Olympic Games, war and conflict, and a Russian doping scandal that emerged from the 2014 Games in Sochi. Bach's handling of the latter, in particular, drew criticism, with Russian athletes still able to compete at the Games as neutral athletes.

But Bach leaves on a high note after completing negotiations for an NBC media rights deal worth $3 billion US , and a Games in Paris that felt like the return of the spirit of the Olympics.

Bach said he didn't think his successor would be facing as much uncertainty as he did when he started his mandate more than a decade ago.

But that person does have a long list of challenges to confront, beginning with climate change. Extreme heat and warming temperatures threaten the future of both the Summer and Winter Olympics, something more than 400 athletes, including more than 20 Canadians, emphasized last week in a letter to IOC presidential candidates.

Bach advised his successor to keep athletes at the heart of the Olympic movement and to focus on unity. Doing that requires making sure the more than 200 national Olympic