IOC: Rio Olympics were ‘perfect imperfect games’

McLaren, who was appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency in May, is expected to give more detail about cheating operations at the Sochi laboratory.

The strict parameters were originally brought down July 19, when World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren reported that the Russians operated a state-sponsored doping program from 2011 to 2015. On Tuesday, the executive board voted to make cheerleading an Olympic sport.

The American, an ice hockey Olympic champion at Nagano 1998, insisted they are “fully committed to building a stronger and more effective global anti-doping system” because, as “clean athletes, we are directly affected more than anyone else, and enhancing the credibility of sport is in our fundamental collective interest”.

The Rio de Janeiro Olympics may not have been ideal but organisers exceeded expectations given the political and economic situation in the South American country, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Tuesday.

Bach’s comments came on the same day the International Olympic Committee executive board cleared all three candidate cities for the 2024 Olympics — Paris, Los Angeles and Budapest, Hungary — to advance to the next stage of the race.

For 2024, the International Olympic Committee introduced an invitation phase for potential bidders to ensure they met general criteria and to eliminate weak candidacies. They take the number of recognised Olympic sports to 37.

Bach did note that as an International Olympic Committee disciplinary commission chairman he approved life bans for Austrian team members implicated in a doping program at the 2006 Turin Winter Games.

It led to a partial ban of the Russia’s Olympians from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and the suspension of the country from the 2016 Paralympics in Brazil.

“As it stands that event was planned beforehand and doesn’t contravene the IOC’s call as far as I understand”, he said.

Outside of the Olympics, worldwide federations have the authority to sanction athletes and their entourage and potentially suspend national federations, the IOC said. “We should all be working together to end doping in sports”.

The new report further backs Rodchenkov’s account. McLaren’s investigation found scratches and other marks left on the doping bottles.

The report also detailed how some Russian samples were diluted with salt or even coffee granules.

Still, the evidence to prove doping might be missing. The IPC said last month that the Russian Paralympic Committee must cut ties with the government and “adequately address the findings of the McLaren Report”.