Olympic officials will hand over doping cases to independent arbitrators

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.

See more of our top stories on Facebook >>

“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.

Get the latest in sports with our free newsletter >>

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.

MORE OLYMPICS NEWS

LA 2024 to court the Olympics, Snapchat filter-style

U.S. Olympic officials ask judge to dismiss antitrust lawsuit

Health official predicts Zika outbreak will not affect Summer Olympics