‘Zero tolerance’ if Olympic medals affected by doping allegations, insists IOC chief
Wada to investigate damning claims that hundreds of recent medals could be tainted
Bach said it is up to the World Anti-Doping Agency to investigate the allegations, including that one-third of medals in endurance races at the Olympics and world championships from 2001 to 2012 were won by athletes who recorded suspicious blood tests.
“If there should be cases involving results at Olympic Games, the IOC will react with zero tolerance with our usual policy,” Bach said.
READ MORE> Athletics in new doping crisis
German broadcaster ARD and The Sunday Times newspaper in Britain said they obtained access to the results of 12,000 blood tests involving 5,000 athletes. The leaked files came from the database of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
Meanwhile, the head of world athletics said on Monday that any suggestion his organisation had been negligent in drug testing of athletes was "laughable".
"There are allegations made, no evidence," IAAF president Lamine Diack said. "We want to look into them seriously because to say that in athletics between 2001 and 2012 we did not do a serious job with tests is laughable."
The report said 800 athletes, competing in disciplines ranging from the 800 meters to the marathon, registered blood values that are considered suspicious under Wada standards.
The report found that 146 medals – including 55 golds – in those disciplines at the Olympics and world championships were won by athletes who have recorded suspicious tests.
The Sunday Times also said that 10 medals at the 2012 London Olympics were won by athletes with suspicious results, and that in some finals every athlete in the medal positions had recorded a dubious blood test.
We have full confidence in the inquiry by Wada
The International Olympic Committee has previously stripped medals from athletes who have retroactively been found guilty of doping offenses dating back to the time of the games. The IOC also stores Olympic doping samples for 10 years for possible retesting.
“We have full confidence in the inquiry by Wada,” Bach said. “If needed, we will follow suit ... and do everything to protect clean athletes.”
Bach said he discussed the allegations on Monday with Wada chief Craig Reedie.
“We made it very clear and we agreed that Wada is our competence in the fight against doping and they will inquire into these allegations,” Bach said at a news conference at the close of weeklong IOC meetings in Kuala Lumpur. “But at this time, we have nothing more than allegations. We have to respect the presumption of innocence of the athletes. We are looking forward to receiving the report prepared by Wada.”
The IAAF and Wada were already investigating accusations made in two previous ARD documentaries of alleged systematic doping and cover-ups in Russia.
The latest ARD program, called “Doping Top Secret: The Shadowy World of Athletics,” was broadcast three weeks before the world championships in Beijing, which run from August 22-30.
