The Olympic System: Toward a Geopolitical Approach

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The Olympic System: Toward a Geopolitical Approach 

• XI

More recently, WADA has insisted on developing testing outside of competi-

tion in order to catch certain products that would be undetectable during compe-

tition and thus, since 2009, has required certain athletes to provide a weekly time 

slot when they can be found at a specific location to undergo testing.

For the first time ever, the sports movement has given an international institu-

tion full power to fight against doping.

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 The Foundation Board is made up of 

equal numbers of members appointed by the sporting world and by intergovern-

mental organizations, governments, public authorities, or other public organiza-

tions dedicated to fighting doping in sports. The agency is funded by the IOC 

and by equally shared contributions from public authorities.

This agency therefore has a vital role to play in defending the health of athletes 

and the ethics so often claimed by the sports movement. While it can serve to 

guarantee efforts in the sporting world for clean Games, is it not also clearly in the 

interest of sports marketing? We have seen this with the Tour de France, where a 

doping scandal has so tarnished the image of the competition that German public 

television has refused to continue broadcasting it. Would the IOC be able to find 

so many sponsors ready to associate their image with the Games if they were too 

frequently tarnished by doping?