IAAF RESPONDS TO WADA INDEPENDENT COMMISSION’S SECOND REPORT

The IAAF thanks the WADA Independent Commission for all of the hard work that it has clearly put into its report.

The IAAF fully acknowledges and accepts the extreme gravity of the Commission’s findings. The weakness of IAAF’s governance which has been exposed allowed individuals at the head of the previous regime at the IAAF to delay the following of normal procedures in certain doping cases.

Each and every one of the measures that the Commission has recommended to strengthen IAAF governance has been fully noted. The IAAF will incorporate those recommendations into the root and branch governance review which was begun by IAAF President Sebastian Coe immediately he came into office.

The IAAF acknowledges the Independent Commission’s positive comments about its handling of its blood testing programme in 2001-2012 and its assessment of the administration of the athlete biological passport programme.

Sebastian Coe commented: “I am extremely grateful to the WADA Independent Commission for its work and for the recommendations it has made. The corruption that it has revealed is totally abhorrent, and a gross betrayal of trust by those involved. Even though each of the impacted doping cases was eventually resolved with lengthy bans for the athletes involved, I recognise that the IAAF still has an enormous task ahead of it to restore public confidence. We cannot change the past, but I am determined that we will learn from it and will not repeat its mistakes. Some of the measures recommended by the Independent Commission already feature in the governance reform programme that I announced on 5 January but we will now urgently consider all of the new recommendations and will incorporate them quickly into that reform programme.”

IOC Executive Board Provisionally Suspends Mr. Lamine Diack

IOC Executive Board takes action following WADA Independent Commission – provisionally suspends Mr. Lamine Diack

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is closely monitoring the situation after the Independent Commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) released its report on 9 November. The IOC expects the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and WADA to consider all necessary action to be taken to protect the clean athletes and rebuild trust.

Even if it has not been directly addressed in the report, the IOC has already decided to take the following steps itself:

The IOC’s Executive Board decided this afternoon to confirm the proposal of the IOC Ethics Commission to provisionally suspend Mr. Lamine Diack, the former President of IAAF, from his honorary membership of the IOC.

As far as the Olympic Games may be concerned the IOC Executive Board decided:

The IOC has asked the IAAF to initiate disciplinary procedures against all athletes, coaches and officials who have participated in the Olympic Games and are accused of doping in the report of the Independent Commission. With its zero-tolerance policy against doping, following the conclusion of this procedure, the IOC will take all the necessary measures and sanctions with regard to the withdrawal and reallocation of medals and as the case may be exclusion of coaches and officials from future Olympic Games;

The IOC studied the functioning of the WADA accredited laboratory in Sochi during the Olympic Winter Games 2014 following the doubts expressed during the Independent Commission’s press conference. In this context the IOC relies on the then report of the WADA independent observer group which makes no mention of any such irregularity. Nor was any such irregularity reported by the international experts involved, nor found by the IOC itself. Therefore, the IOC has no reason to question the credibility of the results of the anti-doping tests carried out at the Olympic Winter Games 2014. However, the IOC retaining all the doping samples for ten years, will retest samples in an appropriate way should substantial doubts arise. In any case, the IOC may retest samples once new scientific techniques become available.

IAAF STATEMENT CONCERNING ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS

The IAAF confirms that, emanating from separate ongoing investigations by WADA’s independent commission and the IAAF’s own independent Ethics Commission into allegations surrounding its anti-doping rules and regulations, a French police investigation has now commenced.

The IAAF is fully cooperating with all investigations as it has been from the beginning of the process.

As part of the French investigation, police visited the IAAF HQ offices yesterday to carry out interviews and to access documentation.

The IAAF will make no further comment at this time.