From Inside the Games
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has issued a call to arms to the organisation’s membership for them to contribute to the ongoing process to reform the global anti-doping system.
Bach, writing in a six-page letter which has been obtained by insidethegames, urges the 97 IOC members to give their feedback of what should be done following a year plagued by criticism over their response to the Russian doping crisis.
A World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Think Tank is due to take place on Tuesday (September 20) in order to discuss potential changes ahead of an Olympic Summit of key stakeholders, chaired by Bach, scheduled for October 8.
“At the upcoming Olympic Summit…we will start to discuss this review,” Bach wrote in the letter, also addressed to IOC honorary members and the body’s Honorary President, Jacques Rogge.
“One of the issues will follow the declaration of the previous Olympic Summit and Olympic Agenda 2020 to make the anti-doping system independent from sports organisations.
“With regard to this initiative and more ideas, your guidance and input are crucial for the success of the discussion leading to the decisions to be taken by WADA.
“Therefore I would like to encourage you all to send in your thoughts.
“I will also ask the chairs of all the IOC Commissions to set aside some time in their agendas during the meetings in November to give everybody the opportunity to express themselves.
“All this should lead to an Extraordinary World Conference on Doping in Sport 2017, result in a more robust, more efficient, more transparent and more harmonised anti-doping system.”
