IOC President Jacques Rogge has vowed to continue to fight to stamp out drug cheats at the Olympic Games.

He’s told the IOC members in Copenhagen “fighting against doping remains our absolute priority”.

Rogge said the number of out of competition drug tests had doubled in the past eight years and he “would have no hesitation in calling in the police if necessary as we did in Torino”.

At the 2006 Winter Games the Italian police raided accommodation housing members of the Austrian Olympic Team.

In his address to the IOC meeting Rogge also promised to maintain the fight against illegal betting. He said the IOC would form a new body to deal with irregular betting and match-fixing and they would work with Interpol and international sports federations.

The new body would check for athletes involved in illegal betting and who might be “fixing” Olympic events.

The new body should be operational by next year’s Vancouver Winter Games.

Australian athletes, coaches and officials are banned from betting on Olympic events under the AOC’s Team Agreement which is strictly enforced.

President Rogge told the session income from marketing and television rights had increased significantly. Income from the IOC’s top sponsors for 2009 – 2012 was $883 million US and negotiations were still underway to finalise the program.

He said television rights had climbed to $3.8 billion US for the 2010- 2012 period. This compared with $2.2 billion US for the 2002-2004 period.

Rogge said free to air television broadcasting would remain a priority for the IOC but they would also use new platforms such as mobile telephones and the internet to attract the young audience.

Mike Tancred – AOC
Copenhagen