Rogge pledges to step up IOC fight against doping

Tokyo: International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has promised to strengthen the fight against doping cheats, calling it the IOC`s top priority.

"Doping is most certainly the biggest threat to sport because it undermines the health of the athletes and it undermines the credibility of the athletes," Rogge told a meeting to mark the 100th anniversary of the Japanese Olympic Committee on Friday. "We`ve made the fight against doping our priority on the International Olympic Committee. We have doubled the number of tests between the Sydney Olympics (in 2000) and London (2012)." Rogge admitted that keeping sport totally free of the scourge of doping was a near impossible task but the IOC would continue to adopt a zero-tolerance policy. "While we will never be able to have zero doping, I can say with great pleasure that we are making bigger progress. "Today it is far more difficult to (get away with) doping than it used to be a couple of years ago." Rogge also called for countries to clamp down on crowd violence before the Olympics in Britain, which has seen its share of soccer hooliganism in the past."The second major danger for sport is violence, in and out of the venues," he said. "This is a major problem, mostly in team sports, where we need a good association between the public and the sports authorities."Sport alone cannot solve it, but we have to lead by example." Bureau Report