International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach launched a fresh appeal on Tuesday to protect sport from doping scandals and corrupt practices after recent damaging revelations.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspended Russia last month after a bombshell report published by a WADA independent commission found evidence of state-sponsored doping and large-scale corruption in Russian athletics.

"We must do everything we can to protect these millions of clean athletes around the world," said Bach, who won a team fencing gold medal at the 1976 Games in Montreal for Germany.

"For their sake and for the credibility of sports competition, they have to be protected from doping and corrupting influences.

"We also have to protect the credibility of sports competition from match-fixing and manipulation. The IOC has created a specific $20-million fund for the protection of clean athletes."

The statement from Bach, issued ahead of an IOC executive committee meeting due to discuss the governance of sports organisations, said that the IOC maintained a zero-tolerance policy against doping and any kind of manipulation and corruption.  

"Doped athletes already face a four-year ban from any kind of sports competition for their first infringement.

"This means an effective ban from the next edition of the Olympic Games. As a young man, I called for life bans even for the first infringement.

"What we can do is make the anti-doping system more independent from sports organisations. In this respect, the IOC took the initiative to ask the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the international authority in the fight against drugs in sport, to consider taking over testing programmes from the international sports federations." added Bach. 
Source: AFP