WADA in the crosshairs, as IOC members fume at late response

Rio de Janeiro (dpa) – International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach on Tuesday called for a full overhaul of anti-doping measures in the wake of the Russian Federation crisis.

On Sunday, Bach defended the International Olympic Committee’s decision not to ban the entire Russian delegation from the Olympics, and said the IOC was not responsible for the timing of the latest WADA report, which came out on July 18.

The IOC asked worldwide sports federations to decide which Russian athletes could be free to compete in Rio, following a report by a World Anti-Doping Agency investigator that detailed evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia.

Instead the Games’ ruling body directed sports federations to allow Russian athletes to compete if they met a set of criteria, including a clean doping past and sufficient testing at global events.

An investigation by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren which revealed state-organised doping in Russian Federation, has overshadowed the buildup to the Rio Games which start Friday.

The IOC announced on Saturday that its panel, consisting of Ugur Erdener, the IOC’s medical commission chairman, Germany’s Claudia Bokel and fellow IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., would review the decisions by the individual sports federations over the eligibility of Russian athletes. But they were named among 31 swimmers allowed to compete in Rio, FINA said.

Last week the sport’s governing body FISA ruled that six Russians were eligible for the Games but banned 17, plus two coxes, after ruling that they did not meet the IOC’s new criteria of being regularly drug-tested outside Russia.

Even Pound admitted later he realised the futility of opposing the consensus so he also put his hand up in support of the executive board’s stance.

The IOC chief has become involved in a political battle with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over who is to blame for the chaos coming so close to the Rio opening. “This is about improving significantly a system in order to have a robust and efficient anti-doping system so that such a situation that we face now can not happen again”.

But the German leader of the Olympic movement said there had to be “justice” for athletes who are clean.

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told The Associated Press: “We respect CAS and will of course follow their decision”.

WADA President Craig Reedie of Britain, who is also an International Olympic Committee vice president, spoke only at the end of debate to say that he would respond Wednesday in his report about his agency’s activities.

“I urge you to resist this unprecedented pressure that is now on the entire Olympic movement and not to let this pressure to split the entire Olympic family”, he said.

“This is a situation we do not want to happen ever again in sport”, he said.

Members voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution backing the IOC’s decision not to impose a blanket ban on Russia’s athletes.

Bach rejected suggestions that the IOC’s response had been a failure, and took a shot at WADA for not having acted earlier based on whistleblower evidence of cheating in Russia, and for having accredited the Russian doping labs at the center of the scandal.

Some of the Olympic football matches will start on Wednesday ahead of the main Games and while the IOC session is debating doping and key business for future Olympics.