The IOC has been roundly criticized by many anti-doping bodies, athletes’ groups and Western media for not apply a complete ban on the Russian team. He said it would be wrong to make individual Russian athletes “collateral damage” for the wrongdoing of their government.
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“The Olympic Movement stands for life and the construction of a better future”, Bach added. Some 100 Russians have been barred from the Rio Games.
Bach, speaking at the International Olympic Committee session in the Brazilian city, said preventing clean athletes from competing and treating them as “collateral damage” would have been wrong.
The scandal has led to dozens of Russian athletes being banned from the Olympics, which begin on Friday, including essentially the entire track-and-field team. It puts their efforts into perspective and highlights their tremendous achievements, Bach said.
The two global sports bodies are at odds over an investigation that revealed state-orchestrated Russian doping which left the International Olympic Committee scrambling for a response.
But Reedie also admitted that “parts” of the system were broken and that the anti-doping community and Olympic movement needed to come up with a better response to the level of criminality recently uncovered by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren’s report into cheating at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and other major events. “The IOC has no authority to follow up on information about the failings of the testing system”.
“We can never have the ideal games as there will always be teething problems, but so far I have not seen anything that should make me doubt these games will be successful”, Kimani said.
He said it would be tragic if any of the 250-plus Russians awaiting a final green light from the IOC after being cleared to compete by the global federations, were now sent home.
He added: “The IOC is calling for a more robust and efficient anti-doping system”.
“I’ve been running the hare that perhaps broadcasters, sponsors that invest in and benefit very largely from the world of sport, might just think clean sport was a good idea and would like to help”.
“We need a full review of the Wada anti-doping system”.
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”. We may disagree how we get there but we all work toward the same goal of protecting clean athletes.
Members voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution backing the IOC’s decision not to impose a blanket ban on Russia’s athletes.
“While it is destabilising in the lead-up to the Games, it is obvious, given the seriousness of the revelations that (McLaren) uncovered, that they had to be published and acted upon without delay”, WADA president Craig Reedie said. “The arrow’s left the bow”, he said.
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MUCH as I enjoy watching competition at the Olympics I am becoming increasingly alarmed at the seemingly casual approach to the games in Brazil being taken by the International Olympic Committee.
