IOC president Thomas Bach defends Russia's inclusion at Rio Games

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has defended his organisation's decision not to throw Russia out of the Rio Olympic Games for doping.

The Olympic superpower's presence in Rio was thrown into doubt three weeks before the start of the Games when Canadian law professor Richard McLaren published his interim report into state-sponsored doping in Russia, which was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Despite calls for Russia to be suspended from international competition, Bach and his executive board left the decision on the eligibility of individual Russian athletes up to their respective international federations, with the country eventually finishing fourth in the medal table.

Speaking to the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) general assembly in Doha, Bach said that the IOC's decision not to issue a blanket ban on Russia has been praised by "dozens of heads of states".

He said: "They appreciated and acknowledged that we did not take a political decision, but that we took a decision in the interest of sport in respecting the rights of clean athletes.

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"This appreciation from so many world leaders is confirmation of our decision and encouragement for all of us when we had to take such a difficult decision in such a short amount of time."

The International Paralympic Committee did ban the entire Russian team, while athletics, rowing and weightlifting also took strong stances at the Olympics. Bach's weaker response to McLaren's findings was widely criticised by anti-doping experts and athletes' groups, with the final report into how Russia manipulated tests between 2011 and 2015 set to be published next month.

Bach also told delegates from the 205 national Olympic committees that Rio 2016 was a "huge success" and drew a comparison between the headlines that dominated the build-up to the Games and the predictions ahead of last week's US election.

The 62-year-old German highlighted the 75 per cent increase in the amount of hours broadcast around the world from Rio 2016 compared to London 2012, and the five billion views the Games received across social media platforms, saying "half of the world's population was watching".

He said: "I don't know if you remember the headlines about security, about venues, about water quality, about politics in the country, about Zika - when so-called pest experts were calling for the Games to be cancelled - about clean athletes.

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"There was an atmosphere of doubt when we arrived in Rio; an atmosphere of accusations and allegations. I think when people study the election results of the last week they will see the gap between published opinion and public opinion, the gap between perception and reality.

"Well, maybe here is another case study with Rio 2016. Because now that all the dust has settled... we can see with great confidence that these Games were a huge success in many if not all respects."

Bach also restated his case that the global anti-doping system has "deficiencies" and outlined his plan to create a new "international, top-down testing system" that is independent from sports federations and "national interests" and said he hoped WADA "will support and drive forward these plans".

The global anti-doping organisation has its next meeting in Glasgow this weekend, with reform, Russia and the re-election of its president Sir Craig Reedie on the agenda.

Towards the end of Bach's Doha speech, he also acknowledged the continuing incarceration of IOC vice-president Patrick Hickey, who has remained in Rio on suspicion of alleged ticket touting.

Bach repeated his support for the former Olympic Council of Ireland president and reminded the delegates that "our colleague enjoys the presumption of innocence".