The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that a new Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) Anti-doping Division will handle cases from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro onwards.
"The CAS Anti-Doping Division will replace the IOC Disciplinary Commission to hear and decide on doping cases at the Olympic Games, as well as the subsequent re-analysis of samples taken at the Games," the IOC said in a statement following its Executive Board meeting on Tuesday.
The move comes as part of the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms, and follows the Resolution of the Fourth Olympic Summit to make anti-doping testing independent of sports organisations.
"This is a major step forward to make doping testing independent, following the decision of the IOC Executive Board three months ago after the proposal of the Olympic Summit. It represents support for the IOC's zero tolerance policy in the fight against doping and in the protection of the clean athletes," IOC president Thomas Bach said.
The delegation of the results management and hearings to the CAS is another step taken by the IOC in recent weeks to make the anti-doping system more independent. Earlier it was proposed that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) lead intelligence-gathering funded by the IOC to make testing in the lead-up to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro as efficient and independent as possible.
Out-of-competition testing during the Olympic Games will also be guided by this intelligence group from WADA, to make it more targeted and more effective.
The delegation by the IOC Executive Board to the CAS Anti-doping Division is pursuant to Rule 59.2.4 of the Olympic Charter. The IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, Rio de Janeiro, 2016 will be amended accordingly to reflect this change.
