“The IOC has asked the IAAF to initiate disciplinary procedures against all athletes, coaches and officials who have participated in the Olympic Games and are accused of doping in the report of the Independent Commission”, the statement said.
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The overall tone emanating from Moscow, however, was defensive with a string of officials denouncing the findings of WADA, which has recommended that Russian athletes are excluded from global events including the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
Diack was a powerful figure within the IOC as he controlled the flagship sport of the Olympic Games for more than 15 years, with athletics also a big beneficiary, along with swimming, of the IOC’s Olympic Games financial contributions. “The accreditation of the laboratory was temporarily suspended”, Xinhua quoted Mutko’s advisor as saying.
“It’s worse than we thought”, said Richard Pound, the commission’s president and an influential member of the worldwide Olympic Committee. The affair took a dramatic twist last week when former IAAF chief LamineDiack was charged with corruption on suspicion of taking bribes to cover up doping cases.
The 82-year-old, an International Olympic Committee member from 1999 to 2013 before becoming an honorary member a year later, was placed under formal investigation in France this week and questioned by authorities before being released on a bail bond of 500,000 euros and banned from leaving the country. He stepped down in August as president of the IAAF. “I make calls that are unanswered”, Keino told Reuters.
D’Hooghe says WADA-accredited labs in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Cologne, Germany, are “perhaps two of the best” if Federation Internationale de Football Association needs an alternative to test players’ samples. The report claims that officials may have used a second laboratory in Moscow to pre-screen samples and circumvent positive results.
Speaking again Tuesday, the head of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency acknowledged there is a problem but insisted his country is moving forward to address it. Nikita Kamaev said the report – which was especially critical of a lab that, he said, is independent from his agency – provided clarity but no real news to his organization.
The Russian president had been due to discuss the doping allegations published Monday in the World Anti-Doping Agency commission’s report.
“We have made it clear that we will, once we get the relevant information from IAAF, withdraw and reallocate medals with regard to Russian athletes which may have been doped”, Bach said. “We have also made it clear that if officials or coaches have been involved that they will be banned from future games”.
Highlighting the extent of Russian state involvement in the efforts to dodge anti-doping rules alleged by the report, the authors describe cases where agents of the FSB, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, visited and even posed as staff at a key laboratory.
The IAAF is expected to decide on a World Anti-Doping Agency commission recommendation to block Russian participation in track and field events, a move that would jeopardize their chances of competing at next year’s Olympics.
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Zelichenok also said the accusations of state-sponsored doping are part of a conspiracy.
