LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The global corruption and doping scandals engulfing sports this year are an opportunity for organizations to undergo change and earn back lost credibility, the president of the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday.
On the first anniversary of the IOC’s Agenda 2020 reforms aimed at making the Games a more attractive and transparent prospect, Thomas Bach said transparency was necessary for all sports organizations as was the need for stronger national government involvement in catching and punishing doping cheats.
Bach’s comments in an Op-ed published Tuesday comes days after Hamburg’s 2024 Olympic bid spectacularly failed in a city referendum, marking the latest withdrawal of a Games candidate.
Four of the six bidders pulled out of the bidding for the 2022 Winter Games, a further two were rejected at national referendums, and so far two — Hamburg and Boston — have pulled out of campaigning for the 2024 Summer Olympics in a blow to the IOC and its prime product.
Bach has blamed the doping scandals involving Russian athletes, corruption allegations within the world athletics federation (IAAF) as well as world soccer’s governing body FIFA and a scandal related to the 2006 soccer World Cup in Germany as some of the major reasons for Hamburg citizens rejecting the bid.
“Yes, these times are difficult for sport. But yes, it is also an opportunity to renew the trust in this power of sport to change the world for the better,” Bach said. “Protecting clean athletes goes hand in hand with ensuring that the environment in which athletes operate is safe from corrupting influences,” said Bach, adding the IOC had already made changes in auditing and financial reporting, term limits for IOC members and introducing ethics officers.
FIFA is struggling with the biggest crisis of its history with dozens of senior members, including vice presidents, arrested in relation to allegations of racketeering, corruption and money laundering.
Probe clears Swiss lab
Switzerland’s anti-doping laboratory did not break rules set by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) when it destroyed analyzed blood samples, according to an internal audit ordered amid a massive scandal rocking world athletics.
Switzerland’s CHUV hospital in Lausanne last month ordered an audit of its anti-doping lab LAD after WADA charged that its destruction of blood samples transferred from a lab in Moscow three years ago broke the agency’s rules.
CHUV had already explained the Swiss lab’s actions, saying it had determined 55 of the samples fulfilled the technical requirements for reliable analysis.
The 55 samples had been analyzed by the team at the lab in the idyllic Swiss city of Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva, and at the end of the month the results were passed on to WADA, it said.
One of them showed “abnormal” results, CHUV said in its statement this week.
The hospital said LAD had asked WADA for guidance on what to do with the remaining samples, and informed it that the 54 negative samples had been destroyed, in accordance with the agency’s rules.
1st stone symbolically laid for new HQs
The first stone for the new IOC headquarters was symbolically laid Tuesday.
The 200 million Swiss francs ($200 million) project will allow the International Olympic Committee to house all 600 employees under one roof.
Ground clearing on the new site is scheduled to begin in April, and the new building is expected to open in 2020.
Staff will move to temporary offices in the Lausanne suburb of Peuilly in February. The IOC has been based in Lausanne for 100 years.
