Samaranch "not interested in doping": Pound

By Steve Keating

TORONTO (Reuters) - World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chief Dick Pound has claimed former International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch tried to sweep doping under the carpet to protect IOC interests.

"Samaranch wasn't interested in the issue," Pound told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"There was no money available for research and Samaranch wasn't interested in using the Olympic leverage against the international federations to make them do their job.

"He was never willing to do that."

Samaranch, who took over as IOC chief in 1980, is credited with turning the then lagging fortunes of the Olympic movement around and creating a hugely popular and commercially successful product with the Summer and Winter Olympics.

He also greatly enhanced the political clout of the IOC worldwide. The Spaniard's mandate ended in 2001 and was succeeded by Jacques Rogge, who has advocated a zero tolerance policy on drugs.

Pound said were it not for the 1998 Festina team cycling scandal at the Tour de France, where officials found a carload of performance-enhancing drugs and police raided team hotels to find more drugs, things would not have changed.

"I think we would have went on like that for a long if it hadn't been for the Festina fiasco in 1998," he said.