IAAF defends its anti-doping record

The head of world athletics vigorously defended the IAAF’s anti-doping record on Monday, as global sporting bodies called for a thorough probe of the latest allegations to plunge international sport into crisis.

Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper and Germany’s ARD/WDR broadcaster reported on Sunday they had obtained secret data from the IAAF, supplied by a whistleblower, that indicated suspicions of widespread blood doping in athletics.

“There are allegations made, no evidence. We want to look into them seriously because to say that in athletics between 2001 and 2012 we did not do a serious job with tests is laughable,” IAAF president Lamine Diack told Reuters in response to the reports.

Coming only weeks before track and field’s showpiece event, the reports claim endurance runners suspected of doping had been winning a third of the medals at Olympic Games and world championships in that period.

The reports did not say that any athletes had failed doping tests, only that the tests had been abnormal, which can sometimes be a sign of cheating.

The allegations are the latest setback to tarnish the multi-billion dollar world of sport after the scandal at soccer’s global governing body, FIFA.

Athletics are a central part of the Olympics, the only sporting event that rivals soccer’s World Cup in scale and which collects billions of dollars from sponsors like Coca-Cola, Panasonic, Visa and McDonald’s. International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach told reporters on Monday he had spoken to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) head Craig Reedie and had full confidence in that body to investigate the claims thoroughly.

“I don’t know about the detailed allegations, which athletes, which competitions are affected,” he said.

Bach said the IOC would act with “zero tolerance” if there should be a case involving results at an Olympic Games.

“But at this time we have nothing more than allegations and we have to respect the presumption of innocence for the athletes,” he said. Medals won could be affected if any cases of doping were subsequently unearthed using newer testing techniques that did not exist at the time.