March 01--As part of an effort to improve anti-doping enforcement, Olympic officials announced Tuesday they will forward all suspected violations discovered at the 2016 Summer Games directly to a court of arbitration.
"This is a major step forward to make doping testing independent," said Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee. "It represents support for the IOC's zero-tolerance policy in the fight against doping and in the protection of the clean athletes."
The Court of Arbitration for Sport, a Swiss-based organization, will create an anti-doping division to hear cases at the Games and handle any appeals or re-analysis of samples. Previously, such work was done by a special IOC disciplinary panel.
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As part of its Agenda 2020 reforms, the IOC is seeking to remove potential conflicts of interest by shifting anti-doping enforcement from national and international sports organizations to autonomous groups such as CAS and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
