IOC for independent dope-testing regime

LONDON: In a shake-up of the drugtesting system in sports, Olympic leaders agreed Saturday that testing should be independent of sports organisations and urged the World Anti-Doping Agency to take over the responsibility on a global level.

In a separate decision, the IOC said competitions run by international federations or national Olympic bodies must allow entry to athletes from all member countries and give them equal treatment, or else the event will not be given Olympic qualifying status. The move addresses the issue of Israeli athletes being denied entry to some countries.

Doping topped the agenda of the “Olympic Summit” convened in Lausanne, Switzerland, by IOC President Thomas Bach. The meeting was attended by members of the IOC’s rule-making executive board, and leaders of international federations and national Olympic committees.

The group “decided to make anti-doping testing independent from sports organizations,” the

IOC said in a statement. “The summit requested WADA to study taking responsibility for testing as the global center of competence in anti-doping.”

The study will be carried out

by a WADA working group that includes Olympic leaders and government representatives. No time frame was given. The move is aimed at giving more credibility to drug-testing by taking it out of the hands of sports bodies and event organizers and turning it over to an independent body.

Federations have been viewed as partial in drug-testing and less willing to uncover cheating in their own sport. Critics say the current system has an inherent conflict of interest. Putting the testing in independent hands would introduce more legitimacy to the system, the Olympic leaders believe. Sebastian Coe, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, has called for an independent body to handle drug-testing in track and field.