The International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach Tuesday said the IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated in the doping scandal revealed by a report from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The Independent Person Report, contributed by Richard McLaren, a member of the WADA Commission, revealed Russia's government and sports governing bodies had engaged in doping of all 28 Olympic sports and covered up 312 positive tests.
"The findings of the report show a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games," Bach said in a statement.
"Therefore, the IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated," he said.
The IOC Executive Board Tuesday started disciplinary actions related to the involvement of officials within the Russian Ministry of Sports and other persons mentioned in the report because of violations of the Olympic Charter and the World Anti-Doping Code.
With regard to the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympic Games Rio 2016, the IOC will evaluate the report. It will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice. In this respect, the IOC will have to take the CAS decision on July 21 concerning the IAAF rules into consideration, as well as the World Anti-Doping Code and the Olympic Charter.
Given the urgency of the matter, the IOC EB has already taken provisional measures, such as IOC will not grant any accreditation to any official of the Russian Ministry of Sport or any person implicated in the IP Report for Rio Olympic.
The IOC Executive Board reiterates and supports the measures already announced by the Olympic Summit on June 21 to reverse the "presumption of innocence" of athletes from Russia with regard to doping, which means that the eligibility of each Russian athlete will have to be decided by his or her International Federation based on an individual analysis of his or her international anti-doping record.
In this context, the IOC asks to communicate the names of Russian athletes implicated in the "Disappearing Positive Methodology" and the alleged manipulation of the doping tests performed by the Sochi laboratory to the respective International Federations and, where appropriate, to the IOC, in order to allow them to take swift action.
The IOC Executive Board also notes the deficiencies revealed by the IP, Richard McLaren, in the fight against doping. Therefore the IOC reiterates the call of the Olympic Summit to fully review the anti-doping system by requesting WADA to convene an "Extraordinary World Conference on Doping" in 2017.
