Wednesday 18 May 2016 12:05, UK
International Olympic Committee [IOC] president Thomas Bach has suggested entire federations could be banned from the 2016 Olympic Games as the fight against doping is escalated.
The IOC announced on Tuesday it had discovered 31 positive tests after 454 samples collected at the 2008 Beijing Olympics were re-tested, while the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] put its investigations manager Mathieu Holz in charge of an urgent probe into allegations of state-run doping among Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Bach responded with an editorial carried by both the Daily Telegraph and USA Today stating that the IOC would apply a "zero tolerance policy not only with regard to individual athletes, but to all their entourage within its reach".
He added: "This action could range from lifelong Olympic bans for any implicated person, to tough financial sanctions, to acceptance of suspension or exclusion of entire national federations like the already existing one for the Russian Athletics Federation by the International Association of Athletics Federations."
Bach added that under such a scenario, athletes from affected nations may be required to prove their innocence rather than vice-versa.
"We would have to consider, whether in such 'contaminated' federations, the presumption of innocence for athletes could still be applied, whether the burden of proof could be reversed," he wrote.
"This could mean that concerned athletes would have to demonstrate that their international and independently proven test record is compliant with the rules of their international federation and the World Anti-Doping Code, providing a level playing field with their fellow competitors."
Holz, a former major of the French Gendarmerie and Interpol agent, will be in charge of WADA's scrutiny of the claims made in the New York Post and CBS show 60 Minutes.
Hosts Russia topped the Sochi medal table with 33 medals, 13 of them gold, but a New York Times report last week claimed performance-enhancing drug use was widespread, state sanctioned, and covered up.
Bach said that if proved true, those involved would be guilty of an "unprecedented level of criminality".
Russia's sports ministry said on Wednesday that it was ready to co-operate fully with the WADA in its investigation into allegations of organised doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
"We are willing to fully co-operate with WADA in their investigation," the ministry said.
The IOC's executive board also announced on Tuesday that the results of 250 more re-tests from London 2012 would come in the next week, with further retesting of medallists from 2008 and 2012 planned too.
