Bach opened the IOC’s three-day general assembly in Rio on Tuesday by defending the executive board’s handling of the Russian doping scandal and insisting the controversy had shown up deficiencies in the system run by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
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But speaking at the opening session of an International Olympic Committee meeting, Bach said: “The findings in the McLaren report are very serious, in particular with regards to a system of doping allegedly orchestrated by the Russian ministry of sport”.
Bach and WADA have been at odds since the agency publicly recommended that the IOC impose a total ban on Russia’s Rio Olympic team after McLaren’s report detailing state-directed doping in more than two dozen winter and summer sports.
They expressed disappointment following the IOC’s decision to allow some Russians to compete and accused the Games’ ruling body of lacking the leadership and courage to punish Russia.
Just days ahead of the Olympic Games the waterways of Rio de Janeiro are as filthy as ever, contaminated with raw human sewage teeming with risky viruses and bacteria, according to a 16-month-long study commissioned by.
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.
Instead it chose a set of criteria for athletes to meet, including a clean doping past and sufficient testing at worldwide events, that so far has allowed more than 250 out of the original 387 Russian athletes to be cleared for Rio.
Andy Hunt, the head of World Sailing, says “if it was absolutely necessary, we could still carry on competition, but it would just be logistically very hard”.
The findings of the report have rocked final preparations for Rio and prompted a terse exchange between the anti-drugs body and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). She replaces Claudia Bokel, a former Olympic fencer from Germany whose four-year term is expiring.
The United States will have a second member on the International Olympic Committee’s executive board.
Ruggiero’s elevation comes at a crucial time for the US, with Los Angeles seeking to bring the Summer Games back to the country for the first time since Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympics. The IOC will select the host city in September 2017.
Until DeFrantz made it back to the executive board in 2013, the US had been without a member at the top table since 2006. “The athletes will compete in safety”.
CAS are also involved in two cases away from the Russian doping scandal as Sudanese sprinter Mangar Makur Chuot Chep and Jamaican discus thrower Jason Morgan are challenging their non-selections by their respective country’s Olympic associations. Workers have also been repairing the ramp to be used at the sailing venue in Guanabara Bay which collapsed after being hit by high winds and waves on Saturday. “There is some disconnect and we will have to bridge that gap but it is doable”, Pound said.
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Rio dumps at least half of its untreated sewage into the water surrounding the city, soiling many of its world-famous beaches.
