JOHANNESBURG (AP) — New International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has backed proposals to double bans for doping offenders from two years to four.
In his address at the World Conference on Doping in Sport on Wednesday, Bach said “protecting the clean athletes must be our ultimate goal. It must have top priority.”
Bach says the IOC athletes’ commission had even wanted a lifetime ban for serious doping offenders.
The World Anti-Doping Agency will vote on proposed changes this week at its conference in South Africa, with the lengthening of standard bans seen as the most obvious new deterrent.
Bach also said spending money on anti-doping measures was not an expense for sports but an “investment.”
