Current President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, on Sunday called for reforms to the Court of Arbitration for Sport structure after the extremely disappointing decision to lift lifetime ban of 28 Russian athletes suspected of having benefited from an institutionalised doping system.
According to Bach, the court’s decision reveals an urgent need for reform in the internal structure of the CAS to achieve more quality and continuity in judgments.
Bach, who went to the Olympic Village on Saturday evening to meet the athletes, revealed that the CAS decision was the hottest topic for them and represented perhaps 90% of their questions.
“We would never have imagined such a decision. What can be done to prevent this situation from happening again, it worried the athletes.” Bach said.
“We can not find ourselves in a situation where the CAS will lose its credibility among athletes,” former Olympic fencer added.
In November and December, a disciplinary commission of the IOC disqualified and banned for life 43 Russian athletes, present at the Olympic Games in Sochi, pulling Russia of 13 medals.
But on last Thursday’s theatrical event: the CAS, judging that the evidence was “insufficient”, partially blamed this disciplinary commission and totally canceled the lifetime ban of 28 Russian athletes, allowing them under conditions to apply for the Winter Games in South Korea, and recover their medals from Sochi.
Russian athletes allowed to participation at Pyeongchang 2018, in South Korea. (Source:www.insidethegames.com)
While the same confusion reigned shortly before the opening of the Rio Olympics in 2016 on the participation or not of the Russians in certain sports, Bach had indeed used the same ploy of communication, accusing then the World Agency anti-doping (AMA).
In his opinion, WADA was guilty of delaying the publication of the first part of the report by Canadian jurist Richard McLaren, who had highlighted an institutionalized doping system in Russia.
“The absence of sanctions from the CAS doesn’t mean that the athletes can receive an invitation from the IOC, because receiving this invitation is a privilege reserved for clean Russian athletes,” Bach said.
CAS on the other side, through its Secretary General, Matthieu Reeb, responded to IOC and will ask a clarification from its president.
“Before taking any stand, we will first seek clarification from the IOC as to the kind of reforms that our president has outlined today [Sunday], beyond the disappointment of IOC who expressed by report to the sentences of the CAS concerning Russian athletes.” Reeb said.
