IOC members bash world anti-doping body over Russia scandal

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has earlier announced that serious reformations were planned for the national weightlifting federation in the wake of the IWF’s decision to ban all Russian weightlifters from the 2016 Olympics. On Friday a small fire broke out in the basement of the building, which forced an evacuation, during which a laptop and team shirts were stolen.

IOC President Thomas Bach spoke out Tuesday against the “nuclear option” of imposing a complete ban on Russian athletes for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, prompting a debate that laid much of the blame for the scandal on the World Anti-Doping Agency.

WADA came in for criticism from International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach on Sunday for failing to act more quickly on evidence of widespread doping in Russian Federation provided by whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova.

“Therefore, the IOC Executive Board had to reverse the presumption of innocence for Russian athletes and to make him or her bear the collective responsibility for the alleged failures of the government”, Bach said.

He said it was a fair decision, and was independent of politics.

“A basic principle of natural law is that any human being is entitled to individual justice and has to be presumed innocent”.

Bach’s position received support from most of the speakers during the debate, although some questioned the International Olympic Committee decision to keep Russian whistleblower Yulia Stepanova – an 800-meter runner who helped expose systematic doping in her homeland – out of the games.

It was a call IOC president Thomas Bach and his executive board resisted, choosing instead to give the global federations the responsibility of vetting each Russian athlete, with a three-man panel set up by the IOC and Court of Arbitration for Sport getting final approval.

Russian sports chief Alexander Zhukov has delivered a forceful defence of Russia’s right to compete at the Rio Games, saying it would be a “real tragedy” if any of the team were sent home.

“We had to take the necessary decisions”, Bach said.

“It was only when CBS 60 Minutes and the New York Times, on 8 and 12 May 2016 respectively, published the allegations from the former director of the Moscow and Sochi laboratories, Dr Grigory Rodchenkov, that WADA had concrete evidence suggesting Russian state involvement that could be investigated by initiating the McLaren Investigation, which we did immediately”, said Reedie.

Bach took a shot at WADA, which was set up by the International Olympic Committee in 1999, for not having acted earlier on whistleblower evidence of widespread doping in Russian Federation.

“We’re sure that we are going to have some great Olympic Games Brazilian style”, Bach told the hundreds of reporters from around the world who are in Rio to cover the Games, which start on August 5.

“Following the results of this Disciplinary Commission, more sanctions and actions may follow”.

Bach also defended the International Olympic Committee decision to reject a bid by 800-metre runner Yulia Stepanova, a former doper and whistle-blower who helped expose the extent of cheating in Russian Federation, to compete in Rio as a neutral athlete.

He expressed support for South America’s first Olympics, whose build-up has been overshadowed by Brazil’s political and economic crises and concerns over Zika, water pollution, crime and budget cuts. “It is no exaggeration to say that the Brazilians have been living through extraordinary times”.

“In a time when the country is divided politically, economically and socially, the transformation of Rio de Janeiro is truly historic”.