After a debate lasting more than two hours, Bach asked for a show of hands, and all but one of the approximately 100 members voted in favor of his position.
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Gilady was referring to middle-distance runner Yulia Stepanova, who had written to WADA, repeatedly offering evidence of state-backed doping in Russian Federation, but ended up providing the information to German broadcaster ARD which produced several documentaries revealing the scandal.
Bach insisted the International Olympic Committee could not be held responsible for the timing of the McLaren Report and the subsequent scramble to assess the eligibility of Russian athletes to compete at the Rio Olympics, which start on Friday, and suggested WADA could have acted sooner on evidence provided by Russian whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova.
Bach blasted an outright ban as a “nuclear option”, adding: “Let us just for a moment consider the consequences of a “nuclear option”. “The result is death and devastation”.
It also decreed that no Russian athlete with a prior doping conviction could enter the 2016 Olympics, regardless of whether the sentence had been served. “The cynical ‘collateral damage” approach is not what the Olympic movement stands for”.
He also had strong words for critics of the IOC’s handling of the Russian Federation scandal, saying: “What is not acceptable is the insinuation of some proponents of the blanket ban that those who do not share their opinions are not fighting against doping”.
Meanwhile Vitaly Stepanov, the Russian anti-doping whistleblower, maintained that the Rio Olympics would not be drug-free and that the International Olympic Committee was against those who had revealed the extent of drug problems, like himself. Pressure for a full ban grew after WADA investigator Richard McLaren issued a report accusing Russia’s sports ministry of orchestrating a vast doping conspiracy involving athletes across more than two dozen summer and winter Olympic sports.
“Natural justice does not allow us to deprive a human being of the right to prove their innocence”, Bach said.
“The IOC is not responsible for the accreditation or supervision of anti-doping laboratories”.
“This is not about destroying structures”, IOC President Thomas Bach said, referring to WADA.
“If proven true, such a contemptuous system of doping is an unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games”. “The IOC is not responsible for the fact that different information which was offered to WADA already a couple of years ago was not followed up”.
“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.
“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”.
“At times WADA has seemed to be more interested in publicity and self-promotion rather than doing its job as a regulator”.
Bach spoke after a debate in which International Olympic Committee members overwhelmingly backed the executive board’s decision not to take the “nuclear option” of banning Russia’s entire Olympic team.
The WADA press conference had been due to take place at the Main Press Centre in the Olympic Park at 1530 local time on Thursday, a day before the Games’ opening ceremony.
He defended the timeline of WADA’s work and their responses in recent week and claimed that the anti-doping system was only “partly” broken.
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US member Larry Probst said it was wrong to attribute the problem to “international politics”.
