OLYMPICS-IOC/NEWSER President says IOC will have zero tolerance if doping allegations are true

Record ID: 145297

  • Title: OLYMPICS-IOC/NEWSER President says IOC will have zero tolerance if doping allegations are true
  • Date: 3rd August 2015
  • Summary: KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (AUGUST 3, 2015) (REUTERS) INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC) SPOKESMAN MARK ADAMS AND PRESIDENT THOMAS BACH WALKING INTO NEWS CONFERENCE BACH (RIGHT) AND ADAMS (LEFT) TAKING A SEAT (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC) PRESIDENT, THOMAS BACH, SAYING: "If there should be cases involving results at the Olympic Games, the IOC w
  • Embargoed: 18th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Malaysia
  • Country: Malaysia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8RLDA8QRC1CR7Q1ROWWS4TM49
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Monday (August 3) said that his organization will continue with its zero tolerance policy for medalists if doping allegations are found to be true.
    "If there should be cases involving results at the Olympic Games, the IOC will act with zero tolerance with our usual policy, but at this time we have nothing more than allegations and we have to respect the presumption of innocence for the athletes," Thomas Bach said during a news conference.
    Global sporting bodies have called for a thorough probe of the latest doping allegations after a report was leaked to the media claiming endurance runners suspected of doping had been winning a third of the medals at the Olympic Games and world championships.
    The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which is leading the investigation, has said it was "very disturbed" by the reports.
    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 IOC on Monday expressed confidence that WADA would get to the bottom of the case.
    "First of all, now it's in the hand of WADA as the competent centre of both sports and governments to deal with this, and we have full confidence in their procedure," Bach said.
    The comments came at the end of a four-day IOC session in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, where members elected the host of 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
    FIFA's president Sepp Blatter, who was absent during the session, was relieved of his IOC ex officio membership on Monday, seven months before he is replaced as the head of soccer's governing body.
    "His mandate as FIFA president would come to an end on the 26th of February next year because there would be a - FIFA would elect a new president. And for this reason, and the reason that he could not come here, that he would not think it being appropriate being proposed for a new mandate of eight years," Bach said, conveying the message of a letter sent by Blatter.
    Blatter would ordinarily have been re-elected for another eight-year term as a procedural matter at the ongoing IOC Session in Malaysia, along with more than a dozen other members, but would be required to stand down when he left FIFA at the end of February.
    FIFA was thrown into turmoil two days ahead of its presidential election when more than a dozen officials and sports marketing executives were indicted by the United States on bribery, money laundering and wire fraud charges.
    Bach also said on Monday that the water quality for competitors at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics will be on the agenda when he leaves for the Brazilian city later in the day. Bach will be attending celebrations in Rio marking the one year countdown to the Games on August 5, and said pollution would be discussed with Rio 2016 officials.
    He assured that the IOC would be monitoring developments.
    "They have the assurance from the World Health Organization (WHO) that there's no significant risk for the athletes, but of course we will continue to monitor this until and including the Olympic competitions," said Bach.
    Privately commissioned tests of the water quality where athletes will be competing revealed last week a high level of disease-causing viruses.
    The waters along Rio's Atlantic coast, including Guanabara Bay where sailing events will be held, have been polluted for years and successive governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on attempted clean-ups to little effect.
    Rio officials have started test events, including sailing, as they prepare competition venues for the first Olympics to be held on the South American continent.
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