Russian athletics will reform in time for Rio Olympics, says bullish IOC chief Thomas Bach
IOC president confident of clean-up act a day after athletes are provisionally suspended
IOC president Thomas Bach said yesterday he was confident Russia would enact the necessary anti-doping reforms in time for its track and field athletes to be cleared to compete in next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Bach gave his backing to Russian Olympic Committee head Alexander Zhukov, who has been tasked with overseeing reforms to Russia's athletics federation, anti-doping agency and national drug-testing lab, all of which were implicated in a sharply critical World Anti-Doping Agency independent commission report last Monday.
All doped athletes will be sanctioned ... all clean athletes will be protected
The IOC announced the agreement with Zhukov a day after Russia was provisionally suspended from all international competition, including the Olympics and world championships, by the International Association of Athletics Federations.
"We are confident that the initiatives being proposed by the ROC, with the responsible international organisations, Wada and the IAAF, will ensure compliance as soon as possible in order to provide participation of the clean Russian athletes at the Olympic Games," Bach said in an IOC statement.
The Russian Olympic body "will coordinate all efforts in Russia to address the issues mentioned" in the Wada report, the IOC said, adding that all athletes, coaches and officials who are accused of involvement in doping will be punished.
