The Princess Royal has made a dramatic intervention in order to defend the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Tuesday during a session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The unprecedented comments from the Queen’s daughter follows remarks made by other members of the IOC which criticised the organisation following the Russian doping scandal.
The president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, had criticised WADA saying that it was responsible for the recent doping epidemic because they didn’t act sooner to investigate the allegations of Russian doping.
In response to attacks on the organisation, Princess Anne addressed the IOC with a speech saying that they had come a long way.
The Princess 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?”
The Princess Royal has a long history with the Olympic Games, having both competed as an athlete as well as being a member of the IOC for 30 years.
In 1976, she participated in the Olympic Games in Montreal, riding aboard The Queen’s horse, Goodwill.
The session of the International Olympic Committee will continue until Thursday, just before the Olympics officially get underway on Friday with the Opening Ceremony.