Reaction to IOC Rejection of Retroactive Medals: Part 2 of 3

John Leonard, Executive Director of the 6000 member American Swimming Coaches Association, has labeled the IOC decision to not recognize the real winners in events affected by the drug-influenced East German swimmers as “outrageous”.

Mr. Leonard’s statement:
“The IOC, which has repeatedly presented itself as the leader in anti-doping, has revealed its true nature in this refusal to correct results that were proven to be drug influenced.

Where court-proven drug use has occurred, or where confessions of drug use in training have been accepted, it is absolutely vital that the IOC award duplicate medals to all affected swimmers, and correct the results to reflect the changes. Athletes from many nations and in many sports have been cheated. All should be compensated and the results corrected.

To put this whole task in the “too hard basket” because the IOC will have a lot of cases is truly outrageous. The IOC is supposed to be in the business of providing fair competition for the world’s sportsmen and women. Instead they have revealed that the IOC is really in business to protect the perks, power, and prestige of the officials involved in governing world sport. Now we can add “preservation” to the above list of disgraces.

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