IOC President: Sochi Olympics Drug Cheats Will Be Caught

(ATR) International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach proclaims that all Russian drug cheats will be caught and sanctioned pending the results of the Oswald and Schmid Commissions.

Bach’s comments were made in a 45-minute rebuttal to criticism the IOC faces on a range of issues. Speaking in Prague at the opening of the annual general assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees, Bach touched oncorruption, doping scandals and problems forming viable bids for the Olympics.

Bach defended the IOC approach of deferring to international federations that was used ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympics to determine whether Russian athletes could compete.

"Before Rio 2016, the IOC was indirectly affected because there it was about the manipulation of samples for national testing and International Federation testing in the Moscow laboratory, it was not about Olympic samples," Bach said. "Now with regard to Sochi, the IOC is directly affected," he said.

"Now it’s about the manipulation of samples at the Olympic Games of the WADA-accredited lab for the IOC.

"These are responsibilities that are directly linked to the Olympic Games and the IOC and if these manipulations are being proven true as it looks right now, then this is a direct attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and on the IOC."

One day after lifetime suspensions of Russian cross-country skiing Olympic gold medalist Alexander Legkov and teammate Evgeni Belov for Sochi doping violations, Bach promised that more action is coming.

"Hearings are ongoing and the Oswald Commission who has been giving the right to take all these decisions by the IOC Executive Board will come up with more decisions in the next coming days and weeks," Bach said.

The Oswald Commission was created to analyze whether specific athletes are guilty of doping offenses which were masked by manipulation of doping samples at the accredited lab for Sochi 2014.

IOC member Denis Oswald says the work of his three member commission should be complete by the end of November. The IOC Executive Board meets in early December where it is expected to ratify the decisions made the Oswald panel.

Despite mounting evidence of wrongdoing by Russian athletes, federations and anti-doping systems, Bach was emphatic in maintaining due process and the presumption of innocence as a right to everyone in the Olympic Movement.

"The Olympic Summit and Olympic Movement consider this to be unacceptable that specific sanctions are already being demanded in the public domain before due process," Bach emphasized. "In the Olympic Movement everybody, I mean everybody, enjoys the same rights and obligations and the right to a fair and due procedure."

NOCs Must Set Models of Good Governance

Bach is trying to put some distanced between the IOC and the corruption scandals facing former members Carlos Nuzman and Lamine Diack.

Nuzman, as President of Rio 2016, was arrested last month on charges over potential bribes paid to Diack’s son to secure votes for the 2016 election of Rio as host city in 2009. Diack, the former President of the International Association of Athletics Federation, is now under investigation by both Brazilian and French authorities for his role in the scheme to buy votes.

Bach said that the IOC is working to constantly reform itself to prevent corruption among members, but reform "does not make any body immune against wrongdoings."

The IOC president challenged the leaders of each NOC at the meeting in Prague to implement good governance at home, so it would trickle up to continental and worldwide bodies. Only with good governance can the sporting world win the trust of the public.

"The public does not make the fine difference of the names of federation and NOCs," Bach said. "For the public it is about sport. Please have this in mind, and please adapt if necessary your good governance models in the right way."

Bach ended his speech saying the world is full of "mistrust against the establishment," which he included the IOC.

"We are living in a world where people are more and more thinking in silos of their own opinion, where people are not ready for real dialogue anymore…and where they become aggressive to people that do not share their opinion," Bach said.

"The Olympic values of respect of tolerance and understanding of these are more important than ever before. All together we have the determination, the courage and the will to promote and defend these Olympic values."

Written by Brian Pinelli, Kevin Nutley and Aaron Bauer in Prague Czech Republic.

Around the Rings is on the scene in Prague for the ANOC General Assembly.

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