Image: International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach attends the Olympic Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland June 21, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
By Karolos Grohmann
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Leading sports powerbrokers gathered at the International Olympic Committee’s headquarters on Tuesday morning to discuss further crackdowns on drug cheats before the Rio Games.
International athletics boss Sebastian Coe and Russia’s Olympic committee chief Alexander Zhukov were present at the meeting, just four days after the IAAF maintained its suspension of Russia’s track and field team, effectively ruling out their participation in Rio.
The gathering of IOC members and federation heads is set to discuss the situation in Russia as well as several other countries, non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The IOC said it would discuss “the difficult decision between collective responsibility and individual justice”.
On Saturday the IOC backed the IAAF’s decision to extend its ban on Russia for systematic doping, denting hopes the nation might have had of competing at the Rio Games in August with a full team.
The IAAF suspended Russia last year over concerns its athletes were guilty of systematic doping.
Several countries, including Russia, Mexico, Ethiopia and Kenya among other, are non-compliant with WADA less than two months before the start of the Rio Games.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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