IOC statement on the Fight against Doping

Following yesterday’s US Congress hearing on the future of the international fight against doping, there was once again uncertainty about roles and responsibilities, and about future reforms of WADA. We would like to take this opportunity once more to lay out the proposals of the Olympic Movement.

We are fully in agreement that testing and sanctioning need to be independent from sporting organisations, but also from national interests. This we already proposed in 2015.  In this respect, we hope that the US and other governments will support us in this reform. A standard level of testing must be harmonised per sport in close cooperation with the relevant International Federation (IF), to ensure that athletes from all nations in one sport or discipline are treated equally. In respect of decisions being taken on a national level, even the perception of the protection of national athletes is damaging. Therefore, effective supervision by WADA of national anti-doping programmes is needed, as well as fully transparent international Test Distribution Plans (TDPs).

The IOC continues to lead the way in pushing for reforms to the system. Already at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, sanctioning was made the responsibility of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), independent of the IOC; and for PyeongChang 2018, we also plan to make testing fully independent from the IOC, as already agreed by the IOC Executive Board in 2015.

As for WADA’s governance, we hope to make it more independent from both sports organisations and governments. We have already offered to elect a neutral President of WADA, but this has not yet been accepted by our partners in WADA – and we are still ready to discuss this once again. We have appointed independent experts for the WADA governance working group to give independent advice on how best to reform the governance of WADA. 

Mark Adams
IOC Spokesman