IOC Director of Communications Mark Adams speaking during the press conference at the Lausanne Palace Hotel in Lausanne, Switzerland, on June 1, 2016. Photo by Maria Pia Beltran, AIPS Media.
LAUSANNE, June 1, 2016 – After the opening session of its Executive Board Meeting on Wednesday, the IOC confirmed a five-point plan of action to implement the “zero-tolerance policy” that has been repeatedly underlined as the cornerstone of the Olympic program.
After resounding criticism of lacking budgets for anti-doping programs both in and out of the IOC itself a doubled budget on the IOC’s pre-Olympic testing program was confirmed, bringing the sum to $500, 000 dollars. IOC spokesman Mark Adams confirmed that “special focus” within the budget will be put on nations with anti-doping programs that had been previously declared non-compliant, including Kenya, Russia and Mexico.
An added focus will also be put on sports that WADA and the IOC consider to be most problematic with the core program. On the same day that boxing’s governing body (AIBA) announced that pro boxers would be allowed to compete the Rio Games, it was understood that boxing itself would be one of the sports to be put under the IOC’s anti-doping headlights, given reports that AIBA has not carried out any out-of-competition doping tests in the year ahead of Rio and hardly any in the past three years.
Bejing and London retests
Following a recorded 55 positive results in the IOC and WADA’s reanalysis of Olympic doping samples, including 32 from Beijing 2008 and 23 from London 2012, it was confirmed that athletes found implicated in doping following the retests would be banned from competing in the Rio Games.
It was also announced that the retesting program itself would be further extended following the sheer number of positive tests. Medalists from Beijing and London would be the primary target of any further retests done, in the prolonged fight to protect clean athletes, IOC spokesman Mark Adams confirmed.
Stakeholder meeting
In a month of frenzied meetings for international sports governing bodies, with Rio looming ahead, the IOC confirmed another meeting of stakeholders for the 21 of June, excpected to be in the Olympic capital of Lausanne. The meeting will come four days after the IAAF’s council meeting in Vienna, where the athletics body will decide on the eligibility of Russia’s athletes to compete in the Rio Games. This is where IOC president Thomas Bach previous rapport of a decision between “collective responsibility and individual justices” will be put to the test. Two-time Olympic pole vault gold medalist Yelena Isinbayeva had previously announced that if banned, she will take her case to the Court of Arbitration of Sport, where, as many have confirmed she will have an air-tight case.
The final point of the program was a post-Olympic summit scheduled for October to “evaluate and review the entire Olympic program” and the anti-doping measure taken ahead of Rio. It is expected that a new group of measures will be announced in the lead up to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyenongChang.
Tokyo 2020
The IOC also announced the “historic, full an unanimous support” of the five-sport package including baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, surfing and sports climbing proposed by the Organizing Committee of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games. The main issue underlined was that the five sports in question, which would now be put forward to the IOC’s Session in Rio ahead of the Games, would not be taking any of the revenue reserved for the 28 core sports of the Olympic program, a major talking point when Agenda 2020 was first voted in.
The second day of the IOC session is set to cover the most disputed issues on the agenda, including the current situation in Brazil from an aspect of both politics and public health, and the corruption allegations against the Organizing Committee of the Tokyo 2020 Games.
IOC member John Coates had previously confirmed to the media that Tokyo still had the full support of the IOC.
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