International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach says athletes from one sport should not be punished for the sins of those from another as he downplayed speculation Russia could be banned from the Olympics altogether for systematic doping.
Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic committee. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is due to issue a report next Tuesday covering its investigation into allegations that a Russian state-run system helped doped athletes escape detection at the Sochi Winter Olympics of 2014.
Travis Tygart, head of the United States' Anti-Doping Agency, is one of several people who have said that if the report does confirm the allegations of systematic doping are true then Russia should be banned from the Rio Olympics.
Russia's track and field athletes are already banned as a result of state-sponsored doping.
However, Bach, head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said: "It is obvious you cannot sanction a badminton player for an infringement of the rules by an official or a lab director at the Winter Games.
"In the same way we would not consider sanctioning all athletes from a particular sport if there is manipulation of the rules by the leadership of a federation."
"What we have to do is take decisions based on facts and to find the right balance between a collective responsibility and individual justice."
Bach said he did not want to speculate about what measures could be taken until there is evidence of any proven infringement.
He added that the IOC was aware that several federations had already begun carrying out extra targeted tests on Russian athletes and made sure that their samples are tested outside the country in a bid to build confidence in the results.
Russia's weightlifters are also facing a blanket ban from Rio over doping but Bach said the IOC has not yet confirmed a series of failures from re-tests of samples given at the 2008 and 2012 Games.
Belarus and weightlifting superpower Kazakhstan are also banned from Rio, pending IOC confirmation after 17 weightlifters re-tested positive, while Bulgaria is already banned.
-Reuters
