May 18--Olympic leaders held a hastily called teleconference on Wednesday morning to address a doping scandal that has overwhelmed the international sports scene.
Speaking to reporters, the president of the International Olympic Committee expressed his concern.
"We have in the IOC all the instruments in place to fight against corruption," Thomas Bach said. "That does not mean we are immune to corruption."
With the Russian track and field team already banned from international competition, recent reports by "60 Minutes" and the New York Times have alleged cheating by Russian officials in a doping laboratory at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Depending on the results of a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation into the matter, Bach said additional athletes and entire Winter Games teams could face sanctions.
"Everybody implicated there would be held responsible and could be banned from Olympic events," he said.
Russian officials on Wednesday reportedly asked that only athletes who test positive -- and not teams -- be punished.
U.S. prosecutors are also looking into the claims, a New York Times report said.
At the same time, the IOC has called upon new testing methods to re-analyze hundreds of samples from the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2012 London Games. Authorities have focused on athletes who might qualify for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
"The testing is more sensitive," said Dr. Richard Budgett, the IOC's medical director. "Altogether, science has moved on."
So far, samples taken in 2008 from 31 athletes in six sports have tested positive. The IOC has yet to release the athletes' identities.
More information from the retesting is expected in coming days.
