The International Olympic Committee is exploring the legal options available in regard to banning Russian Federation from the upcoming Summer Olympics.
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That would be the first time a country has been banned from an Olympic Games over doping.
An independent inquiry commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency said the Russian sports ministry organised a “state-dictated failsafe system” of cheating by Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics and other major events hosted by Russia.
IOC president Thomas Bach said Russia’s actions were “a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games”.
Russian athletes compete at track and field championships in Cheboksary on June 20.
Russian Federation came top of the medal table at Sochi – winning 33 medals, 13 of them gold. Russia’s intelligence serve, the FSB, was also involved, the report said.
Meanwhile, in a statement Monday, WADA called on “the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee to consider, under their respective charters, to decline entries, for Rio 2016, of all athletes submitted by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and the Russian Paralympic Committee”. He said an intricate doping programme was “working like a Swiss watch” and helped at least 15 Russian medallists.
What is the International Olympic Committee doing? CAS was hearing Russia’s appeal on Tuesday against the ban on its athletics team. “This includes plans for the European Games 2019 organised by the European Olympic Committees (EOC)”.
The IOC has also asked McLaren to name names of those implicated in allegations of manipulating drug tests.
What parameters the International Olympic Committee will use to determine Russia’s fate is unknown.
London Marathon organizers say a British court has ordered Russian marathon runner Liliya Shobukhova to repay prize and appearance money after being banned for doping.
In a statement, Hansen added that athletics officials have a duty to work with Russian Federation on the “rehabilitation process however long and hard it proves”, calling it “absolutely essential for the future credibility of athletics and all sport”.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told the R-Sport news agency he had suspended his anti-doping advisor Natalia Zhelanova as well as Irina Rodionova, deputy head of Russia’s state-funded Sports Preparation Centre, and two other officials.
On Monday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev temporarily suspended Deputy Minister of Sports Yuri Nagornykh until a check over the doping scandal is over.
Putin said on Monday that officials named in the McLaren Report into Russian doping cover-ups would be suspended.
Canadian law professor Richard McLaren, left, and investigator Martin Dubbey are shown at a news conference to present McLaren’s findings into allegations of a state-backed doping conspiracy involving the 2014 Wi…
“We fully support the recommendations put forward today by WADA to the global sporting community, and sincerely hope that technicalities are not used to circumvent these appropriate sanctions”.
That means, rather than applying a total ban, federations could suspend individual Russian sports.
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The CAS will rule Thursday on whether the IAAF had grounds to impose a blanket ban on a national federation, since such a suspension inevitably punished athletes with no positive drug test on their record.
