Sports / Olympic Games

Sporting leaders back proposals to give more powers to WADA

(Agencies) Updated: 2016-10-09 10:22

He said it was hoped to have the new system in place by the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Relations between the IOC and WADA have been strained since two independent reports commissioned by WADA revealed evidence of widespread, state-sponsored doping in Russia.

The IOC resisted calls for a blanket ban on Russians competing in the Rio Games due to the country's doping record, leaving decisions on individual athletes' participation with their sports federations.

Last month's Paralympics, however, did ban all Russian athletes.

Reedie has complained that WADA's annual budget of around $30 million, funded partly by national governments and partly by the IOC, is not enough and IOC President Thomas Bach agreed that it would now need an increase.

"If these reforms were to be implemented 100 percent, this would mean substantial commitments and a substantial increase in the tasks and responsibilities of WADA," Bach said in a teleconference.

He said that national Olympic committees could divert the money they currently spend on anti-doping to WADA and provide it with personnel, but he did not think that the bill could be passed on to sponsors and broadcasters.

"I do not see this as a solution because I think it is the obligation and the duty of the sport organisations to fight against doping and to protect the clean athletes," he said.

"To have sponsors and broadcasters paying for anti-doping appears to me to be not to be the right way, but indirectly it will happen because our money comes from sponsors and broadcasters."

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