Judges at France’s highest financial court in Paris are to investigate the bidding and voting processes for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2020 Tokyo
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Judges at France’s highest financial court in Paris are to investigate the bidding and voting processes for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
An initial investigation into corruption in athletics was opened in December after the U.S. city of Eugene was awarded the 2021 world championships without a bidding process.
Former IAAF President Lamine Diack is currently being investigated by French authorities and now the attention has spread to the International Olympic Committee, although Diack remains in the cross hairs.
A World Anti-Doping Agency commission report has suggested Diack accepted bribes to vote for Tokyo rather than Istanbul, who reportedly declined to pay.
The awarding of this summer’s Games to Rio has also come under scrutiny.
Organisers of the event however insist there was no possibility the vote could have been tainted. Nonetheless with five months until the Games begin it is a scandal that the IOC and athletics can ill afford.