• ‘Our confidence has been shattered,’ says letter to IOC and Wada presidents • IAAF to decide on Friday if Russian athletes are allowed to compete in Rio

The International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency stand accused of “shattering the confidence” of athletes across the globe because of their failure to do enough to tackle Russian doping in a powerful private letter seen by the Guardian.

The letter sent directly to the IOC’s president, Thomas Bach, and his Wada counterpart, Sir Craig Reedie, also warns both men that their “tried and tested procedures and safeguards have been proved inadequate” and urges them to do more to “fully discover the truth” about cheating in sport. It comes as the International Association of Athletics Federations, the sport’s governing body, meets in Vienna on Friday to decide whether Russian athletes should be allowed to compete in the Rio Olympic Games in August.

The letter is signed by the hugely respected chairs of the IOC Athletes’ Commission and the Wada athletes’ committee, Claudia Bokel and Beckie Scott, whose organisations represent the views and protect the rights of thousands of athletes worldwide.

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The Guardian has also learned there are growing frustrations with Reedie – who combines his role as the head of Wada with being a vice-president of the IOC – from within the anti-doping movement. Among the criticisms it is claimed that:

• Reedie’s dual roles at Wada and the IOC have created a conflict of interest as global sport decides what to do with Russia’s athletes before the Olympics.

• Reedie “marginalised” Scott when she called for an investigation into other Russian sports after Dick Pound released his first report into corruption in athletics in November, according to one source, and has treated her “abysmally” says another.

• Wada failed to do enough to reach out to Nikita Kamaev – the former head of the Russian anti-doping agency who is now dead – or the former head of the Moscow lab Grigory Rodchenko when he fled Russia. One well-informed source told the Guardian Kamaev had “corroborating evidence” that backed up Rodchenko’s claims of Russian state interference in sport.

The letter from Bokel and Scott was sent last month following Rodchenko’s extraordinary claims in the New York Times about the extent of Russia’s state-run doping programme at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Among Rodchenko’s allegations were that he supplied banned performance-enhancing substances to at least 15 medal winners and – incredibly – that the Russian security services substituted tainted urine samples with clean ones during the Games so their athletes passed doping tests.

The letter starts by telling the IOC and Wada that Rodchenko’s allegations deal “heavy blows” to the Olympic and anti-doping movements, and reminds them of the inadequacy of their efforts to deal with Russia and protect clean athletes.

“We have received requests from hundreds of clean athletes imploring us to do more to ensure our sports are clean and that follow-up investigations are undertaken into other Russian sports and other nations named in the IC report,” they write. “No follow-up investigation was undertaken by Wada, the IOC remained silent on the issue, and not until the media yet again got involved have we seen further action.”

An investigation into Rodchenko’s claims, which is being led by the respected law professor Richard McLaren, is due to report next month. However both authors press for safeguards to be put in place “in a manner that is beyond reproach and restores some faith in the work of the anti-doping community”.

“Our concerns are founded on the IC [Independent Commission, headed by Pound] report and the allegations put forward by Dr Rodchenko,” they write. “There have been procedures evaded, rules violated, samples destroyed and the Lausanne laboratory does not have a perfect record. Furthermore, Russian national federations, anti-doping, state security and government officials all have seemingly helped athletes to dope. At least part of the system has been found to be rotten, how much more we do not yet know. On top of this, tried and tested procedures and safeguards have been proved inadequate.

“It must from the moment the investigation begins treat the bottles and all other materials as criminal evidence, it must have a police level chain of custody, and every step of the way needs to be done better than before.”

They call for an independent investigator to be added to the Wada investigation team, Rodchenko and a number of other people to be present at the opening of the samples, and for the entire process to be filmed and published.

“We ask for the above as we asked for further investigations, not because we wish to be difficult or burdensome, but because at this time athlete confidence in the anti-doping system, in Wada and the IOC, has been shattered,” they write.

The Guardian understands the letter was approved by over 20 athletes’ groups across a number of sports and countries, which represent thousands of athletes. On Monday the Guardian revealed similar concerns had been expressed by 591 British Olympians and Paralympians who wrote to Wada in May to warn that global sport was under threat because not enough was being done to stop cheats.

Reedie’s effectiveness has also been called into question. Sarah Konrad, the athlete representative on the US Olympic Committee, said recent events had made athletes lose confidence in the Wada president. “Wada has been very slow in responding to Russia but the McLaren report is really going to be the real test,” she said. “If it is as damning as we think it is going to be and Wada doesn’t act on it then Reedie needs to be replaced.

“It confuses me why the IOC and Wada have been so slow to act when the press this has been getting and the suspicions it has been generating is killing the movement,” she added.

There have also been criticisms of Reedie’s attitude to Scott, which have ranged from him dismissing her calls for an independent commission review into other Russian sports, breaking with convention at the last Wada board meeting to deny her a chance to speak, and even claims he said “shut that girl up” when she pressed for more investigations into Russia.

The Wada spokesman Ben Nichols said Reedie “categorically denied” such allegations. “Sir Craig Reedie has a tremendous amount of respect for Beckie Scott and what she’s done for clean sport,” he said. “All members of Wada’s Athlete Committee are regularly engaged and encouraged to express their views, and those of the broader athlete community, via formal meetings and other means.

“Most recently, Beckie expressed an interest in contributing to the work of the ongoing independent Sochi investigation; and, consequently, was engaged by McLaren and the investigation team to participate in their first meeting. She will continue to be involved as appropriate. Beckie has shown tremendous leadership throughout her tenure, and Wada and Sir Craig would be thrilled if she were interested in carrying on for another term at the end of her mandate.”

Nichols also denied suggestions Reedie’s dual roles at the IOC and Wada was a conflict of interest. “There can be no conflict of interest when there has been full disclosure that Wada’s president is also an IOC vice president,” he said. “Wada is a hybrid organisation, which constitutionally, has a presidency that alternates between the two sides of the agency: the sport movement and governments. This is a well-established structure that has been in effect since Wada’s inception.”

Meanwhile Scott has warned of the damaging message that will be sent if Russia’s track and field athletes are allowed to compete in Rio. “At some point you have to ask, what do you have to do to be taken out of the Olympic Games?” she told the Guardian. “What has to go on in order for you to be declared as going against the rules and laws of sport officially? It just seems so contrary to what we are trying to build.

“We are at a real crossroads. We have had more incriminating evidence come to light than almost ever in history, and we have to act accordingly. If fair play and clean athletes are truly at the heart of the Olympic movement then we need action that stands behind that. We are in danger of losing the public’s faith in sport.”