Princess Anne has defended the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The 65-year-old royal has spoken out to support WADA after it was criticised for proposing a blanket ban on Russian competitors at the Olympic Games after some of their athletes were accused of using prohibited performance-enhancing drugs.
Speaking at the International Olympic Committee conference, she said: "Some of us have been here long enough to be there at the beginning of WADA when, in the days that we competed, there was no such organisation. As an organisation it’s come a very long way, and with it has come a lot of assumptions about what it can achieve and we’re asking it a lot that is different from its original remit, including a level of responsibility that it’s being asked to take.
"Testing the athlete and sanctioning the athlete is a relatively straightforward process. But the other parts of the equation, the people who make up the backing of those athletes and the people who manage the testing laboratories, is a very different picture. And my question is who are we going to sanction and how?"
Her comments come after the International Olympic Committee’s president Thomas Bach called for a "full review" into WADA.
He said: "Recent developments have shown that we need a full review of the WADA anti-doping system. Let us just for a moment consider the consequences of a ‘nuclear option’. The result is death and devastation. This is not what the Olympic movement stands for."
Princess Anne defends WADA
