Bach used his speech at the opening ceremony of the IOC’s general assembly to address the continuing criticism of the Olympic body’s response to evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russian Federation, declaring that individual athletes can not be punished for the wrongdoing of their government.
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He again pointed blame at the World Anti-Doping Agency for failin.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport is hearing four Russian appeals against bans from Rio.
It follows the discovery of systematic, state-backed Russian doping culminating in last month’s McLaren report, which found Russia’s sports ministry and secret service were involved in a large-scale cover-up of positive tests.
The head of World Sailing is promising a launching ramp that collapsed a few days ago will be ready on Friday – three days before the sailing competition starts at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
“This blanket ban of the Russian Olympic Committee has been called by some the “nuclear option” and the innocent athletes would have to be considered as collateral damage”, Bach said.
“There is no punishing a person for the violations committed by the government if he or she is uninvolved in these violations, and this very principle was applied”, Bach said.
RIO DE JANEIRO-The split between Olympic leaders and global anti-doping officials over the Russian doping scandal continues to deepen.
Individual sport federations must rule on whether Russians can compete in Rio following the country’s doping scandal.
Mutko said he hoped the final size of Russia’s Olympic team would be known by today even though final appeals at the worldwide sports tribunal are still being heard.
With the decision already in place for Rio, Pound said the International Olympic Committee should set aside another meeting in the future to deal with the whole issue.
CAS said it would announce on Tuesday whether more hearings would be needed in the cases of swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev.
The case of wrestler Viktor Lebedev (ROC, IOC, UWW) will be heard after the Efimova case has been decided.
“If you are clean you can be successful and rewarded”, he said.
He said the International Olympic Committee was not responsible for the timing of the latest report, which came out July 18.
WADA hit back by saying it acted as quickly as possible over the doping revelations.
WADA understands that the timing of the McLaren Investigation Report has been destabilizing for a number of organizations as they prepare for the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games, the statement said.
Mutko insists “there is no state system of doping in Russian Federation”.
Bach said that on his arrival on Thursday, he had gone straight to the athletes village “unshaven” to see the conditions where hundreds of plumbers have been working on water pipes following complaints from some teams.
The bay is already under high surveillance over the polluted and debris-ridden sea which worries many teams.
The meeting is due to accept recommendations that climbing, karate, surfing, skateboarding and baseball-softball be added to the bill for Tokyo 2020.
This is not the first discord between the International Olympic Committee and WADA even though Reedie is also a long-time International Olympic Committee member.
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All four 2024 bid cities will have representatives in Rio to promote their candidacies, including French President Francois Hollande and Italian Premier Matteo Renzi.
