Rio 2016's Challenges, Anti-Doping Top Agenda Ahead Of IOC Meeting In Switzerland

With five months to go until the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, "the challenges keep piling up," according to the AP.  Rio's final preparations and the status of anti-doping efforts in Russia and Kenya "will top the agenda" when the IOC exec board holds a three-day meeting starting Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland. The board "is also expected to discuss progress in identifying refugee athletes who will compete under the IOC flag in Rio, the proposed formation of an independent agency to take over drug-testing for all sports, and plans for the Court of Arbitration for Sport to handle doping sanctions." Rio "is preparing for the games at a time when Brazil is mired in its worst recession since the 1930s, President Dilma Rousseff is fighting impeachment and the country is dealing with a vast corruption scandal." If that was not enough, Brazil "is now at the epicenter of the spread of Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that has been linked to a rise in cases of babies born with abnormally small heads" (AP, 2/29).