ATHLETICS-DOPING/DICK POUND Former WADA presidents skeptical of sanctions after doping allegations

Record ID: 145237

  • Title: ATHLETICS-DOPING/DICK POUND Former WADA presidents skeptical of sanctions after doping allegations
  • Date: 3rd August 2015
  • Summary: KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (AUGUST 3, 2015) (REUTERS) SIGN READING (English) "IOC SESSION ROOM"
  • Embargoed: 18th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Malaysia
  • Country: Malaysia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADQ8SD8ADMU2YE198XGZ20XD7L
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: An independent commission chaired by the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) founding president, Dick Pound, said on Monday (August 3) in Kuala Lumpur he doubted sanctions could be slapped on countries following the doping allegations.
    "It's questionable whether you can impose a sanction based upon the data," said Pound, who was in Malaysia for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) 128th session meeting.
    The commission is already investigating previous allegations of doping that implicate Russia, the international Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors and other members of athletes' entourages, as well as an accredited laboratory based in Moscow and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency.
    "Well, at one point the IOC had a rule that you have to solve all problems relating to the previous games before the opening of the next, so it didn't go on and on," Pound added.
    Endurance runners suspected of doping have been winning a third of Olympic and world championship medals, two news organisations said on Sunday (August 2), after a leak of thousands of blood test results from 2001-2012 threw global athletics into chaos.
    Britain's Sunday Times newspaper and Germany's ARD/WDR broadcaster said they had obtained the secret data from the global athletics governing body, the IAAF, supplied by a whistleblower disgusted by the extent of doping.
    The allegations have not been verified by Reuters. The reports did not say that any athletes had failed doping tests, only that the tests had been abnormal, which can sometimes be a sign of cheating.
    The news organisations showed the data to two experts, who concluded distance running was in the same state as cycling had been when Lance Armstrong won the seven Tour de France victories of which he has since been stripped.
    WADA, a separate body set up in 1999 to coordinate doping investigations across global sport, said it was "very disturbed".
    The latest allegations could cast a shadow over the biennial world athletics championships in Beijing beginning Aug. 22.
    The IAAF did not immediately address the substance of the reports but said it was preparing a response. It noted the reports were based on confidential information obtained without permission.
    The International Olympic Committee expressed confidence WADA would get to the bottom of the case.
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