“Recent developments have shown that we need a full review of the WADA anti-doping system”, Bach told an International Olympic Committee session, three days before the Games open.
Advertisement
He said it was a fair decision, and was independent of politics. He also said all decisions would be made before the start of the games.
The federation said the doping results from the Russians were “extremely shocking and disappointing”. Since that time, 119 athletes from all the competing nations have tested positive for banned substances at the Summer Games.
She appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and a statement released on Armitstead’s behalf on Monday said the first missed test – from August 2015 – was declared void by CAS because UKAD’s doping control officer had failed to follow procedure.
Israeli member Alex Gilady echoed that view.
On Sunday, Bach defended the IOC’s decision not to ban the entire Russian delegation, and said the International Olympic Committee was not responsible for the timing of the latest WADA report, which came out on July 18.
Argentina’s Gerardo Werthein also hit out at WADA’s “failure to investigate serious and credible allegations more swiftly”.
But he was offended by Argentina’s Gerardo Werthein, who accused WADA of grand-standing.
Bach said the International Olympic Committee wants to “shed full light on all the allegations” in McLaren’s report, including evidence that Russian officials replaced tainted urine samples with clean ones during the 2104 Winter Games in Sochi.
“It should be noted however that Professor McLaren’s focus thus far was on establishing involvement of the Russian State and not regarding individual athletes that may have benefited”.
“I urge you to resist this unprecedented pressure that is now on the entire Olympic movement and not to let this pressure to split the entire Olympic family”, he said. He also questioned why WADA had accredited the Moscow and Sochi doping labs at the center of the scandal.
Some of the Olympic football matches will start on Wednesday ahead of the main Games and while the IOC session is debating doping and key business for future Olympics.
But he said he was heartened that Russian Federation had accepted that it had a major problem with doping.
The rest of the Olympic facilities and venues, including the much-criticised Guanabara Bay, the polluted body of water where the sailing competition will take place, are all being monitored thoroughly, Bach said. “If we want to be the thought leader and moral force of sport we have to do that among ourselves”. “This vision includes a more robust and efficient worldwide anti-doping system”.
“If there was to be one exception, it should have been her”, Richard Peterkin of St. Lucia said.
The strongest criticism came from Canadian member Dick Pound, a former president of WADA who has been outspoken in calling for a complete ban on Russian Federation – something he had previously called “the nuclear option”.
Bach has become increasingly emboldened in his stance since arriving in Rio, arguing in his opening press conference the IOC’s reputation had not been damaged by the affair.
By the end, however, Pound was among the 84 members who voted in favour.
“It’s an unfortunate situation that was left to the last minute to be dealt with, which makes it very hard for everyone involved”, she said.
“We have the expectation that we’re going to have great Games, although, as always, we’ll have some last-minute challenges”.
Advertisement
With just five days until the opening ceremony, and with Russian athletes having to traverse a convoluted three-step process – involving global sporting federations, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and a newly set up three-person IOC panel – to gain entry to the Games, Bach said the IOC faces a hard balance between punishment and protection.
