adminPYEONGCHANG. — The top Olympics body rejected American proposals for reforming the World Anti-Doping Agency yesterday, as one of its members stirred controversy by comparing a ban on Russian athletes to the Holocaust.
The International Olympic Committee’s executive board issued a declaration calling for a “more robust and independent anti-doping system”, but said sports bodies and national governments must remain heavily involved.
America’s anti-doping and Olympic bodies had earlier said WADA’s governance should exclude anyone from the Olympics or sports world, to avoid conflicts of interest, and that it should have powers to suspend federations and member Olympic committees.
Moves to shake up WADA, which is 50 percent funded by the IOC, follow a storm of controversy over a report commissioned by the body which found evidence of systematic, state-sponsored doping in Russia.
But IOC presidential spokesman Mark Adams, speaking during talks in 2018 Winter Olympics venue Pyeongchang, said the proposal of a sports-free WADA governance was “plainly ridiculous”.
“The call by some that there should be no expertise in sport in the governance of an organisation which is looking into doping in sport, is plainly ridiculous,” he said.
“All governance involves experts in the subjects. What is important is to have a separation between the governance and the prosecution of the cases, in other words the sanctioning and the investigation.
“If those two are kept separate from the governance then you have a good, well-run system which runs along the separation of powers.” — AFP.
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