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President of
the International Olympic Committee, Jacques
Rogge. (Agencies) |
IOC president Jacques Rogge has warned there are
still threats to the success of the Olympic movement and future Games and
that members should not become complacent
.
"While sport is a success in terms of participation, audience and
finance it is threatened by dangers that we need to combat," warned Rogge
when he opened the IOC's 116th Session on the eve of the 2004 Athens
Olympics.
"These dangers are threats to security, gigantism, doping and ethical violations," he added.
With the ever growing threat of international terrorism, Rogge praised
the massive security put in place by the Greek government to protect the
Games.
"The IOC has full confidence in the Greek government, which has the
final responsibility in this and has made an unprecedented effort.
"Going beyond the Games, what is at
stake protecting society, democracy, civilisation and
freedom," said the IOC president.
Rogge stressed that the IOC must continue to battle against doping and
corruption.
His comments came only two days after Bulgarian IOC member Ivan Slavkov
was suspended of his membership after allegations of attempted vote
rigging for the 2012 Olympic bidding campaign.
Undercover reporters from
the BBC Panorama programme, using a hidden and posing as London
businessmen, captured Slavkov claiming that he was ready to help London
win the right to host the 2012 Games.
Announcing the suspension of Slavkov an Rogge on Saturday made no
secret of his anger that the IOC had once again become embroiled in scandal.
"You see in front of you an angry man. Angry at the behaviour of some
people within and without the IOC. I'm angry because the behaviour of some
is tarnishing what is a
wonderful movement. It's also very sad to see some people don't respect
the rules," said Rogge.
At the opening ceremony of the session on Monday Rogge said the
increase in the number of doping cases should be seen as good news.
"The news recently has been marked by a growing number of positive
doping cases.
"Paradoxically this is an
encouraging sign that the fight against doping is gaining ground and that
it is becoming increasingly hard to cheat.
"Let us continue to increase education, prevention and punishment with
additional doping controls and scientific research," said Rogge.
He called on continued cooperation between sports bodies and police.
"Police investigations in many countries confirm our belief that only
collaboration between the
sports movements and governments with their legislative and legal powers
can be effective," he said.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2004-08-10 15:07