MUNICH, Dec 31: The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Belgian Jacques Rogge, has admitted that the organisation “cannot win the war on doping”, merely win some battles along the way.

Rogge, who made his comments in an interview with Monday’s Suddeutsche Zeitung, said he had to take a pragmatic and realistic view.

“The IOC cannot bring peace to the world. We can only be a symbolic voice - no more than that. We cannot win the war on doping - but we can win many battles and we have to rein in the doping mentality,” Rogge said.

“There will always be those who dope. Sport reflects society and here (in sport) there is fraud just as there. We will never have a totally clean sport, therefore.

“But we can make it much cleaner than it is,” he insisted.

Rogge also called for more women at the heart of the IOC.

“It’s a difficult fight and we need more women in the IOC. But that doesn’t happen overnight.

“I have asked the women’s commission and the nominations commission to draw up new rules. I want a system whereby we can automatically nominate more women,” Rogge explained.—AFP