London – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has set up a $10 million anti-doping fund to boost detection methods and will hold an extraordinary session next year to push through changes for sports at the Olympic Games, its president said on Saturday.
Speaking in a conference call to reporters after the executive board held a four-day brainstorming session in Montreux, Switzerland, Thomas Bach said the IOC was ready to embrace change.
The German, elected to the post in September, said the IOC had set aside $10 million for the anti-doping fund and another $10 million to monitor manipulation of athletes in conjunction with Interpol.
“I hope the IOC members will be ready for change. You already see from the decisions there is a great readiness and determination for change and reforms and the same applies to many other issues,” Bach said.
“I think we should look a bit further and put in question whether urine and blood tests are the only ones or best ones.
“Whether we could not have more reliable tests with hairs, cells. It would be very helpful if there was another test methods to find prohibited substances for a longer time.”
He said he hoped governments would match the IOC's financial commitment, which will be available to the World Anti-Doping Agency.
“There will be discussion with Wada for instance because this has to be coordinated so as not to fund things twice. We would be ready to make this amount available for Wada,” he said.
Bach also said the executive board had decided to commission a feasibility study for the creation of an Olympic broadcasting channel while also putting a string of changes regarding Olympic sports to the vote at next year's extraordinary session in Monaco in December.
Among these are plans to introduce new sports to the Games without requiring a decision seven years in advance. Bach has said the Tokyo 2020 Olympics could have more than the current 28 sports.
Among those hoping to make the Games are baseball, softball and squash, all of whom missed out at a recent vote.
As part of the same measures, designed to make the Games more attractive to fans as well as host cities, the executive board also ordered candidates for the 2022 Winter Olympics to file bids with the biggest number of temporary venues possible to reduce cost.
Stockholm, Oslo, Krakow, Beijing, Lviv and Almaty have bid for those Games.
The meeting also decided to establish a working group to look at managing costs for the Games. – Reuters