‘WADA decisions have no political implications’

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 3 (IANS) The decision of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to names the Russian athletes who violated its regulations at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi have no political implications, its president, Craig Reedie, has said.

According to Reedie, the agency has nothing to do with politics as it is seeking to protect "clean" athletes, reports Tass.

WADA's independent commission, chaired by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren, released a report on July 18 on the results of its probe into accusations of doping and manipulation of tests by Russian athletes and officials at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

The commission found evidence that Russia's sports ministry and the centre for training of Russian national teams and the Federal Security Service supported the doping program in sports.

The report stated in particular that the commission's investigation registered a total of 643 cases of "Disappearing Positive Test Results" in Russia between 2011 and 2015 involving athletes from 30 sports.

Following the commission's report, WADA recommended the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and all international sports federations to ban Russian athletes from all international sports competitions, including Rio 2016.

On July 24, IOC held a meeting of its executive board to discuss a potential blanket ban of Russian athletes at the Rio Olympics.

The IOC executive committee decided not to ban the Russian team. Individual decisions on Russian athletes were referred to relevant international federations.