The World Anti-Doping Agency fired back on Monday, a day after IOC President Thomas Bach suggested the agency was to blame for the last-minute chaos over the participation of Russian athletes in the Rio de Janeiro Games. Bach said the agency should have acted sooner on evidence of state-sponsored doping rather than release the damning report by Canadian investigator Richard McLaren so close to the Games, which open on Friday.
“While it is destabilizing in the lead-up to the Games, it is obvious, given the seriousness of the revelations that he [McLaren] uncovered, that they had to be published and acted upon without delay,” WADA President Craig Reedie, who is also an IOC vice president, said in a statement Monday.
On Sunday, Bach defended the International Olympic Committee’s decision not to ban the entire Russian delegation from the Olympics, and said the IOC was not responsible for the timing of the latest WADA report, which came out on July 18.
On July 24, the IOC placed the burden on international sports federations to determine if Russian athletes should be allowed to compete in Rio. More than 100 Russian athletes — including the track and field team — have been excluded, with more than 250 declared eligible by the federations so far.
Thomas Bach
“The IOC is not responsible for the timing of the McLaren report,” Bach said. “The IOC is not responsible for the fact that different information which was offered to WADA already a couple of years ago was not followed up. The IOC is not responsible for the accreditation or supervision of anti-doping laboratories.”
WADA, which was created by the IOC in 1999 to lead the anti-doping fight, and receives half of its funding from the IOC, issued a long statement defending its handling of the allegations against Russia. “WADA understands that the timing of the McLaren Investigation Report has been destabilizing for a number of organizations as they prepare for the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games,” the statement said. “However, WADA wishes to factually clarify that the agency acted immediately on allegations concerning Russia when it had corroborated evidence and the power to do so under the World Anti-Doping Code.” WADA said it set up a commission headed by Dick Pound to investigate allegations of systematic doping made in a documentary by German broadcaster ARD in December 2014.
