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 Jacques Rogge defended professional cycling amid a flurry of doping allegations against high-profile riders, including Tour de France winner Floyd Landis.
The president of the International Olympic Committee said Saturday that the sport remains "credible" because it conducts rigorous testing and punishes those who have taken banned substances.
"A sport is credible whenever the sport conducts the necessary amount of testing in and out of competition, whenever the sport is ready to penalize the athletes but also the people around the athletes," Rogge said. "Cycling is doing that."
Rogge spoke after a meeting of the European Olympic Committees, during which EOC secretary general Pat Hickey of Ireland was elected president of the organization, replacing Italy's Mario Pescante.
Rogge said there are no large differences in the use of banned substances between cycling and other sports and that the commotion surrounding cycling is caused by its greater visibility.
"Doping is an issue for all sports," he said. "There are sports with a number of doping cases that don't catch the front page of the newspapers, the television hardly speaks about them.
"So it's because of the media that people may have the perception that there are more problems."
Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone after the 17th stage of the Tour last Thursday. He went on to win cycling's most prestigious race.
The American cyclist has denied wrongdoing and asked for analysis of his backup "B" sample. He said Friday that his body's natural metabolism — not doping of any kind — caused the result, and that he would soon have the test results to prove it.
Landis' positive test has rocked the cycling world, already under a cloud of suspicion following a wide-ranging doping investigation in Spain that led to the barring of several of the world's leading cyclists from the Tour.
On the eve of the start, nine riders — including pre-race favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso — were ousted, implicated in a Spanish doping investigation. Their names turned up on a list of 56 cyclists who allegedly had contact with a Spanish doctor at the center of the probe. Landis was not implicated in that investigation.
Rogge would not comment directly on Landis' case while results of the backup sample were pending, but urged, "not throw away the baby with the bath water," saying that the International Cycling Union's cooperation with the Spanish probe showed its commitment to fighting doping.
Rogge also appealed for the release of sports officials kidnapped in Iraq earlier this month. He said the IOC was following the situation closely through its contacts in the Iraqi government.
"We pray that our friends be freed as soon as possible," Rogge said.
On July 15, unknown gunmen kidnapped the chairman of Iraq's Olympic Committee and at least 30 other officials, including the presidents of the taekwondo and boxing federations, in a brazen daylight raid on a sports conference in the heart of Baghdad.
The abduction came after Iraq's national wrestling coach was killed in Baghdad.
Rogge expressed worry for the "extremely difficult conditions" in which athletes in the country train and live.
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