IOC president Bach set to leave office next year

PARIS -- IOC president Thomas Bach said Saturday that he will leave office next year and that the Olympics are "best served with a change in leadership."

Bach, 70, has led the International Olympic Committee since September 2013, and his 12-year term limit was due to kick in next year -- but committee members asked Bach last year to consider changing IOC rules to let him remain in office.

He said the IOC needs a new leader who could steer the Olympic movement through an increasingly digital and political world.

"New times are calling for new leaders," Bach told the IOC membership in Paris.