Spotlight on transparency

IOC, WADA make 'trust and credibility' top priorities

Declaring that the global drug-testing system is damaged, Olympic leaders and anti-doping officials vowed on Tuesday to fix the problems and prevent the type of scandal that has embroiled Russian athletes in the lead-up to the Rio Games.

The IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency clashed again on Tuesday over allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia that have rattled the Olympic movement and created chaos ahead of Friday's opening ceremony.

But both sides agreed on one thing - the need to repair the international anti-doping system and make trust and credibility top priorities in the fight against drugs.

"This is not about destroying structures," IOC president Thomas Bach said, referring to WADA. "This is about improving significantly a system in order to have a robust and efficient anti-doping system so that such a situation that we face now cannot happen again."

Bach spoke after a debate in which International Olympic Committee members overwhelmingly backed the executive board's decision not to take the "nuclear option" of banning Russia's entire Olympic team.

Bach and many members pointed fingers at WADA for failing to act sooner on evidence of state-run doping in Russia and for releasing its findings so close to the start of the Games.

"I don't feel as if I've been run under a bus," said WADA president Craig Reedie, insisting both sides were in general accord on the need to find solutions for the future.

"Somebody said this system is broken," he said. "I don't think all the system is broken. I think quite a lot of the system still works, but that certain parts of the system need revision."

Reedie said he had received assurances from officials at high levels of the Russia government that they accept they have a problem and need to fix it.

"It is absolutely essential that we cannot have the biggest country in the world non-compliant on a permanent basis," he said.

Bach opened the IOC's three-day general assembly by seeking formal backing for the board's decisions on the Russian crisis.

After a debate lasting more than two hours, Bach asked for a show of hands, and only one of the 85 members - Britain's Adam Pengilly - voted against his position.

Despite evidence of a vast state-organized program involving Olympic sports in Russia, the IOC board rejected calls for a total ban and left it to international sports federations to decide on the entry of individual Russian athletes for the games.

Bach said it would be wrong to make individual Russian athletes "collateral damage" for the wrongdoing of their government.

"Leaving aside that such a comparison is completely out of any proportion when it comes to the rules of sport, let us just for a moment consider the consequences of a 'nuclear option,'" Bach said.

"The result is death and devastation. This is not what the Olympic movement stands for. The cynical 'collateral damage' approach is not what the Olympic movement stands for."

The IOC has been roundly criticized by many anti-doping bodies, athletes' groups and Western media for not applying a complete ban on the Russian team.

Pressure for a full ban grew after WADA investigator Richard McLaren of Canada issued a report accusing Russia's sports ministry of orchestrating doping program and cover-ups involving athletes across more than two dozen summer and winter Olympic sports.