OLYMPIC GAMES

Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), recalled his days as an Olympic athlete representative with Sebastian Coe here today as he said he was “absolutely sure” that, under the Briton's impending Presidency of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the two organisations would work “very, very closely together” to eradicate doping.

Bach’s first question at the joint IAAF/IOC press conference related to the current problem athletics has with doping allegations and how significant it would be for Coe to be involved as President.

“You may know that Sebastian Coe and I have come a long way together and actually this was started with the fight against doping in 1981 when as athlete representatives in the Olympic Congress in Baden-Baden we were asking for a lifelong ban for any infringement on the anti-doping rules," he said.

“From this time on we have always been together in this fight and in this effort to protect the clean athletes.

“This is why I am not only confident, this is why I am absolutely sure that the IOC and IAAF, with President Seb Coe, will work very, very closely together in a zero tolerance policy against doping.”

Bach, winner of a fencing team gold medal in the foil for Germany at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, added that both he and Coe had vainly sought lifetime bans for doping at that time.

“If you ask me about my emotions I would say really, yes, a lifetime ban I would still support,” he said.

“But I had to learn from different courts and lawyers, like Seb Coe and others asking for this, that this is legally just not possible.

“A lifelong ban does not stand any kind of challenge, so we have to accept this.

“It is a matter of human rights.”

Cricket may not be an Olympic sport - yet - but Bach played a straight bat to the question of how the IOC felt about the recent allegations that had been levelled at thenumber one Olympic sport.

“First of all it is too early here to speculate about results,” he said.

“We have been in contact with the IAAF from the very beginning of these allegations and have had the opportunity to discuss the subject on different levels.

“We have also learned about the statement from WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and the Independent Commission from WADA which I think is very clear.

“Until 2009, before the Athlete Biological Passport was introduced, none of the test results contained in this database could be used as proof for doping.

“They could only serve as an indication for target testing.

"And there the IAAF has explained to us in different ways that this is what they have done, following up with the target testing.

“Since WADA said at the same time that it would be libellous to make the allegations of doping at this point in time I will not make such allegation and such comments.

“We are waiting now together with the IAAF for the results of the enquiry of this Independent Commission.”

Bach added that Coe’s proposal of establishing an independent anti-doping authority within world athletics was “quite interesting”, adding that it would be discussed at tne Olympic Summit in Lausanne during October.

“Obviously the protection of clean athletes will be on the agenda and we will have the opportunity to discuss the proposal among others because we always give thought to ways of improving the fight against doping in sport.”

Asked if he felt action had to be taken to “restore the credibility” of athletics in the wake of recent doping allegations, outgoing IAAF President Lamine Diack responded: “I don’t think it has been lost.

"There are allegations, accusations, lots of upheaval in the press. 

"But if all this leads people to believe our sport is lost, where are we going then?

“There are all these accusations that we have done nothing, which is wrong, I think this is just sensational journalism.

"They are just trying to take advantage of this. the credibility of our sport has not been impinged.

 “So Seb Coe takes the relay baton. He goes on fighting with the same transparency and strength.

“If you write in a paper that the doping results have been hidden since 2001, this is ridiculous, it hardly deserves an answer.

“We are trying to solve this problem as well as we can. Do you think we are doing nothing?

“If you think that one positive result is more important than 1,000 negative results there is nothing much I can do for you.”

Source

Thomas Bach held out hope to Allyson Felix today that she might yet be able to realise her ambition of challenging for both the 200 and 400m titles at next year’s Rio Olympics.

As things stand Felix, who is due to compete over both distances here at the 15th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships, cannot do the same in Rio as the track and field programme does not allow it.

But Bach responded positively to a question asked on the topic at the IAAF/IOC press conference:

“The Olympic programme has been defined in principle, but if we have a special case where we could help an athlete we should still be ready to discuss it.

“I cannot give you the result up front of such discussions, but we would be ready to reconsider this matter and see how we could or what we could do because this would be not about one event, it would have repercussions on others.”

The track and field programme was similarly altered at the 1996 Atlanta Games, offering Felix’s fellow US athlete Michael Johnson the opportunity of becoming the first man to win Olympic 200 and 400 titles at the same Games - an opportunity he took, clocking a world record of 19.32sec and 43.49 respectively.

Lamine Diack, outgoing President of the IAAF, sounded a little less positive on the subject however, commenting:

“Thomas gave us an answer and there’s nothing to add.

“But if we want to accommodate each and every single athlete it will be very difficult.”

Source

T&T is among some 13 countries publicly backing Sebastian Coe's campaign to become the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). 

Twelve of the Federations to have come out in support of Britain's double Olympic 1500 metres champion are from the North American, Central America and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC).

Coe had visited the NACAC Championships in Costa Rica's capital San José last weekend, along with Sergey Bubka, his rival from Ukraine.

Apart from T&T, the countries backing him are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Puerto Rico, St Vincent and Grenadines,  Turks and Caicos and US Virgin Islands.

They join Canada and Jamaica, members of the NACAC who had already publicly backed Coe ahead of the election to replace Senegal's Lamine Diack, who is stepping down after 16 years, at the IAAF Congress in Beijing on Wednesday. 

Several other of the NACAC's 31 members are also expected to vote for Coe, including the United States, who have already revealed they will not say publicly who they are supporting. 

Greece have also joined the growing number of European countries supporting Coe.

Ghana became the first country from Africa to publicly promise to vote for Coe, while Peru, Paraguay, Singapore and Thailand had pledged their support for Bubka, the 1988 Olympic pole vault champion. 

It takes to 36 the number of countries who have publicly endorsed Coe, compared to five for Bubka. 

Source

An important year for the Olympic Movement has just passed. The IOC Session in Buenos Aires was one of the most eventful in our 119-year history, with the selection of a Host City, a vote on the composition of the Olympic Programme, and the election of a new International Olympic Committee President.

It was a great honour to have been granted the responsibility of leading the IOC on 10 September. Thanks to the legacy of IOC Honorary President Jacques Rogge our organisation is healthy. We are now beginning to build our future on this solid foundation.

The year ahead is shaping up to be a significant one for the Olympic Movement. We have a great deal to look forward to in 2014, first of all the Sochi Olympic Winter Games in February, and also the Nanjing Summer Youth Olympic Games in August. After visiting each city and meeting with the respective organisers last year, I am confident that both will be excellent events of the highest quality.

In Sochi the athletes will once again discover the magic of the Olympic Games and the Olympic Villages. They will experience first-hand the ability of the Olympic Games to build bridges and break down walls. In turn, the athletes will share this magic with the rest of the world by bringing the Olympic values to life both on and off the field of play. This will be their time to shine. We must ensure that nothing interferes with them realising their full potential on the world’s biggest sporting stage. The Sochi Olympic Games should be a demonstration of unity in diversity and of remarkable athletic achievements – not a platform for politics or division. This is even more important after the cowardly terrorist attacks in Russia which we utterly condemn. Terrorism must never triumph. We trust that the Russian authorities will deliver safe and secure Olympic Winter Games for all athletes and all participants.

Nanjing will provide us with an early opportunity to move in a new direction. Last month, the IOC Executive Board agreed to allow some new sports and disciplines not currently on the Olympic Programme – sport climbing, roller sports and skateboarding, as well as wushu, which had already been approved – to be showcased at the Youth Olympic Games this summer.

In order to enhance our fight on behalf of clean athletes we have increased the number of pre-competition tests for Sochi 2014 by 57 per cent compared to Vancouver 2010.

The IOC Executive Board has created a fund of USD 10 million to be used, in particular, for better scientific research in the field of anti-doping, and another fund of USD 10 million to better protect clean athletes from any kind of manipulation and related corruption.

More changes in the Olympic Movement over the next few years are necessary and will need to be discussed by us all. Since September I have initiated a dialogue on major themes outlined in my electoral platform with the five other presidential candidates, IOC members and the broader Olympic family. This dialogue has already generated a number of important ideas that will form the basis of the Olympic Agenda 2020, a road map for the Olympic Movement under the leadership of the IOC that we aim to have finalised by the end of 2014.

Our discussions have centred on three major themes: sustainability, credibility, and youth, thereby addressing the main topics of preserving the uniqueness of the Olympic Games; focusing on the athletes as the heart of the Olympic Movement; fostering Olympism year-round; defining the role of the IOC; and improving the structure and organisation of the IOC.

The next step will be for all IOC members to debate the ideas emerging from a four-day brainstorming meeting of the IOC Executive Board. This debate will take place at the IOC Session ahead of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. The process is expected to culminate in Monaco on 6 and 7 December 2014 when the Olympic Agenda 2020 will be presented for final approval to an IOC Extraordinary Session.

This dialogue remains open to the diverse voices and opinions of all Olympic Movement stakeholders. I thank you all  in advance for your active participation in these discussions for the sake of a bright future for our Olympic Movement.

Happy New Year 2014!

Thomas Bach

Source