PYEONGCHANG 2018 TO HOLD DESPITE TENSION IN KOREAN PENINSULA

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – Tension in the Korean Peninsula brought about by prolonged missile test by North Korea and verbal confrontation between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un will not stop the Olympic Games, PyeongChang 2018, coming up in South Korea.

This is based on the communique issued today by leading representatives of the Olympic Movement in Lausanne.

“The Olympic Summit participants expressed their full support for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. The Summit also applauded the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee for all the progress in the technical preparations for the Games”, it said.

With regard to the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the Summit expressed its appreciation that the IOC has been in close contact for many months already with the governments and National Olympic Committees (NOCs) concerned. The Summit took note that none of them has called the Olympic Games PyeongChang 2018 into question.

It added that the safety and security of the athletes are of course the top priority for everyone in the Olympic Movement, and this was highlighted again by the Olympic Summit but that the IOC will continue to monitor the situation in cooperation with governments, NOCs and International Federations (IFs).

On targeted pre-Games testing, the IOC said that protecting the clean athletes is a fundamental commitment of the Olympic Movement.

“Prior to the Olympic Games PyeongChang 2018, the IOC, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Doping-Free Sport Unit (DFSU) of the Global Organisation of International Sports Federations (GAISF) and the International Olympic Winter Sports Federations have set up a Task Force to optimise the effectiveness of testing of athletes in the months before the Games, through detailed assessment of individual athletes and groups of athletes in order to recommend specific targeted tests, and then following up and monitoring the testing performed on these athletes”, the IOC said in the communique.

It noted that the targeted pre-Games testing advised by the Task Force enhances the tests which are already carried out by the IFs and the National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs).

It was emphasised that a special focus of the Task Force is on Russian athletes, given the ongoing inquiries by the two IOC Disciplinary Commissions, in particular with regard to the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014.

It added that there have already been more than 4,000 targeted tests recommended by the Task Force on more than 1,800 athletes and that these recommendations to IFs and NADOs are being followed up and monitored by the Task Force.

The Summit welcomed the commitment of the Winter IFs to make the recommendations of the Task Force with regard to the Russian athletes binding and a prerequisite for any potential Olympic participation.

The Summit supported the above-mentioned measures and welcomed that the International Winter Sports Federations plan to release, from the end of November, a monthly report by nationality of how many athletes have been tested under these conditions.

The Summit emphasised that the targeted pre-Games testing does not prejudge any decision still to be taken by the Schmid and Oswald Commissions and the IOC EB. The Summit was given an update on the ongoing investigations by the Schmid and Oswald Commissions.

Due to the nature and complexity of the cases Mr Denis Oswald explained that a legally-defendable methodology has had to be developed specifically to conduct the forensic analysis necessary for all the cases under the jurisdiction of the Commission. This thorough, comprehensive and time-consuming process took several months, involving external forensic experts.

The Summit noted that the findings of the forensic analysis of the McLaren Report could not be used to establish individual legal action because the methodology that Professor McLaren used was not designed to establish individual anti-doping rule violations.

This was not part of Professor McLaren’s mandate, as he himself has made clear on several occasions. This is why the Oswald Commission needed a new and more specific methodology which, after long research, was developed by experts at Lausanne University. Therefore, the IOC was unable to take action, except for the initiation of disciplinary cases against 28 athletes, until the methodology had been validated and produced the first results.

With regard to the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, the Oswald Commission not only addressed the cases of the 28 Russian athletes mentioned in the McLaren Report, but also undertook a re-analysis of all Russian athletes. This re-analysis has two goals – to further review the samples for evidence of doping, and separately to determine if the samples themselves were manipulated. The IOC has also retested all samples of Russian athletes from the Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010 and the Olympic Games London 2012.

The Summit appreciated the fact that the investigation of the Oswald Commission goes beyond the findings and mandate of the McLaren Report.