International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach on Monday demanded a sweeping overhaul of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Tuesday as Russian appeals against bans mounted just three days from the opening of the Rio Games.
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At the IOC’s session before the Rio Olympic Games, the president intensified his attack on Wada, saying it was to blame for the chaos because it did not act sooner to investigate claims of Russian doping.
“This requires clear responsibilities, more transparency, more independence and better worldwide harmonisation”, the International Olympic Committee leader said.
Although Sozykin tested positive for doping, it is unclear whether this occurred in competition or out of competition, the world sailing body said.
CAS said at least 11 of the 18 cases launched at a special tribunal in Rio since July 26 involve Russian athletes banned from the Olympics after being implicated in a doping investigation.
The IOC then came under fire after it stopped short of banning Russian Federation completely from Rio, instead leaving it to individual sports to take action against athletes from the country.
The result is death and devastation.
“The cynical “collateral damage approach” is not what the Olympic Movement stands for”. “I mean that’s a tough question, I mean how do you define a clean athlete?”
“I believe that this delay by Wada and the failure to investigate serious and credible allegations more swiftly has left the sports movement.in a very hard position”.
The Russian Sports Ministry is trying to remain positive, declaring that 272 athletes have been cleared to compete in Rio.
However, while the Russian Federation’s appeal on the general ban has failed, several individual Russian lifters have filed their own motions to compete: Tima Turieva, Ruslan Albegov, Adam Maligov, and Artem Okulov, all of whom filed appeals with the CAS on August 3rd.
Australia’s Olympic heavyweight John Coates says the decision to allow some Russian athletes to compete at the Rio Games is morally and legally correct.
“I think it’s not the reputation of the International Olympic Committee that has to be restored, it’s the reputation of WADA”, he said.
“We had to take the necessary decisions”, Bach said.
Underlying the deep split between Olympic leaders and anti-doping officials, Bach and others put the responsibility on WADA.
“Some worldwide federations… have now confirmed this fact: a lot of them do not have any reason not to admit Russian team and athletes”, Zhukov added.
“One has to scratch his head if WADA says they did not know what to do with whistleblowers who came to them with clear information, and just left it”.
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Members voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution backing the IOC’s decision not to impose a blanket ban on Russia’s athletes.
