Thomas Bach snapped at suggestions the committee’s response to the crisis had been a huge failure, claiming it was “very obvious” where responsibility lay as a result of the “timing” of the Wada-commissioned report, which found Russian Federation guilty of state-sponsored doping and a cover-up on a staggering scale.
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“While it is destabilising in the lead up to the Games, it is obvious, given the seriousness of the revelations that he uncovered, that they had to be published and acted upon without delay”.
“He seemed to use WADA as a diversion in some way”, Reedie said.
Pressure for the full sanction followed a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren that accused Russia’s Sports Ministry of overseeing a vast doping conspiracy involving the country’s summer and winter sports athletes.
This is the Tank Biathlon World Championships, now taking place just outside Moscow during the International Military Games. “It was caused by very, very serious evidence of wrongdoing. This is not what the Olympic movement stands for”, he said. “It’s all perfectly civilized”.
“We had to take the necessary decisions”, Bach said.
However Vitaly Mutko, the Russian sports minister, hopes to find out today how numerous 250-plus Russian athletes initially cleared by worldwide federations will be confirmed to compete. Instead of issuing a total ban, though, the International Olympic Committee established strict screening criteria for Russian athletes in Rio and left it up to individual sporting federations to determine whether those athletes can compete.
Some have said all Russian athletes should be barred from competition in Brazil, but Bach said Tuesday that the world Olympic body believes that type of punishment is too heavy-handed.
WADA had received information from whistleblowers a few years ago but did not act quickly.
“It is not the International Olympic Committee that is responsible for the accreditation and supervision of anti-doping laboratories”, he said.
“Rugby is proud to work in partnership with our NADO and RADO colleagues and to support WADA and the IOC in contributing to what we hope will be a fantastic Olympic Games in Rio”.
The uncovering of Russia’s widespread doping had shown up deficiencies in the system run by the World Anti-Doping Agency, Olympic chief says.
He said the McLaren report revealed “in a really shocking way” the doping system of Russian Federation.
He said that banning the entire team from Rio couldn’t be justified on legal or moral grounds.
An investigation by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren which revealed state-organised doping in Russian Federation has overshadowed the buildup to the Rio Games which start Friday. But Pound said he did not uncover “concrete evidence” that the Russian government was manipulating doping controls.
“With the case of Stepanova we had to take a very hard decision like with the participation of any Russian athlete”, Bach said.
He won a singles gold medal for Spain at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but missed the 2012 London Games with a knee injury.
About 30 Russians have now appealed, directly or indirectly, against bans from the Rio Olympics ordered by global federations.
Morozov said in a letter to FINA president Julio Maglione this week that he had never failed a drug test by Russian and worldwide experts. It noted that it suspended the Moscow lab in 2015 after violations were cited in Pound’s report.
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International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach says “the ultimate goal of the refugee team is that we don’t need one anymore”.
