After Lance Armstrong - 7 times champion of the Tour de France - made an official complaint and addressed an 8-pages letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) concerning the non-professionalism of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) members, the international institution decided to discuss the matter during its board meetings yesterday. Not a very long time ago, Lance Armstrong was accused of having used banned substances during his maiden victory in Le Tour, in 1999.


Thanks to a Dutch law firm, Armstrong cleared his name, proving the cyclist supporters that the way in which the testing was made and the final result was made public is against all sports ethics and was totally unprofessional. More, he proved that none of the doping tests that he had to go through in 1999 showed any trace of banned substances.

As a consequence of that, the American asked the IOC chief, Jacques Rogge, to immediately fire the head of WADA, Dick Pound. In Lance Armstrong's opinion, that would be the only way "WADA would restore its image as a strong institution and the officials would suffer the same consequences as the athletes do when they break the rules of the game".

After receiving - and discussing - the letter, the IOC board made its decision public through communication director Giselle Davies: "IOC is not part of what's happening between Mr. Armstrong and WADA. If it can help facilitate that the parties could agree to an independent inquiry, it would be willing to do so". It has been proven, once again, that IOC does not have the power - or the will - to interfere with WADA decisions.

Pound did not want to speak to the media concerning this subject, but he wanted, however, to criticize the report that cleared Lance Armstrong from the doping accusations. He named it to be "bordering on the farcical".