Brian Cookson: Other sports "in denial" over doping

Brian Cookson says that the governing bodies of some sports featured at the Rio Olympic Games are “in denial” over doping, and that cycling has made more progress than others in addressing the problem.

The UCI president, quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, said: "I've often said that, for me, there are two groups of sports: sports that have a doping problem and are doing something about it – and I believe we're in amongst the leaders in those – and sports that have a doping problem and are in denial and are not doing anywhere near enough about it.”

He believes that sports that ignore the problem and are not proactive enough in addressing doping “are going to have – and perhaps are already having – I the sorts of problems that we had."

Cookson would not say which sports he believes have ground to make up, saying: "I'm not pointing the finger at any particular sport here, I'm just making the general point."

However, asked which sports are in denial, he replied: “I think people can make up their own minds about that."

The build-up to Rio was overshadowed by the doping scandal that engulfed Russian track and field athletics and led to athletes across a range of sports, including cycling, being omitted from the team if they had previous doping bans.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) subsequently overruled that exclusion, meaning that athletes including London 2012 double bronze medallist Olga Zabelinskaya could participate in Rio, where she would go on to take silver in the individual time trial.

Cookson, who defeated incumbent Pat McQuaid to become UCI president in 2013, the year after Lance Armstrong had been banned for life, insisted that cycling does now have “genuinely independent anti-doping processes, genuinely independent case management."

He said: "I don't want to be complacent or to criticise other sports. I think what we have done was necessary for our sport," Cookson said.

"And I'm not at all complacent, but I think we're in a good position as a sport. I think our credibility is much higher than it was a few years ago, but we need to keep working at that – as do all other sports," he added.

On Friday, CAS confirmed that Brazilian Olympic cyclist Kleber Ramos had been formally disqualified from the road race after he accepted a provisional suspension after testing positive for EMP CERA in an out-of-competition test shortly before the event.

> Brazilian Olympic cyclist suspended after failed drugs test