It’s one of the traditional powerhouses of Olympic sport, but Russia’s place at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro hangs in the balance over allegations of “state-sponsored doping”.
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Russia’s participation in the Rio Olympics remains in the balance after the International Olympic Committee said it will “explore legal options” for banning the country from the Games.
The Russian Olympic Committee headquarters in Moscow.
Earlier in a report released by the World Anti-doping Agency on Monday had indicted the Russia’s sports ministry of aiding the athletes in doping, listed 20 summer games as being part of the plot.
Will Russia compete at the Olympics?
“We would like to highlight our belief that WADA must allow Professor McLaren and his team to continue their investigation, that Russia should be banned from the Rio Olympics, Paralympics, and other worldwide events, and that global federations must enact sanctions so as to protect clean sport”.
The World Anti-Doping Agency tasked McLaren with investigating the allegations and he uncovered a wider system of doping of Russian athletes and subversion of anti-doping rules that reached the highest levels of Russian sport. DNA analysis also confirmed three samples where the DNA did not match that of the athlete, the report says.
The IOC “will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice”, it said in a statement.
The board said it supported measures announced at the June 21 Olympic summit to reverse the “presumption of innocence” of athletes from Russian Federation with regard to doping.
The flag: Still unresolved is the issue of who those athletes would compete for in Rio.
What is the International Olympic Committee doing?
Hansen says “profound cultural, organizational, and procedural changes (are) required before all sports can confidently welcome clean sportsmen and sportswomen from Russian Federation to future worldwide events”.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department.
The IOC said it will not grant accreditation to any official of the Russian Ministry of Sport or anyone implicated in the report for the Games in Rio.
– set up a commission to carry out a “full inquiry” into all of the Russian athletes who competed in Sochi, along with their coaches, officials, and support staff.
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.
Asked whether Russian Federation would boycott the games if it faces punishment, Peskov did not answer directly, but said Russian Federation does not want “such situations to damage the Olympic movement”.
In a statement he added that the officials named in the report would be temporarily suspended.
The executive board decided that disciplinary actions related to the involvement of officials within the Russian Ministry of Sports and other persons mentioned in the report due to violations of the Olympic Charter and WADA code would start immediately.
Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva was among those arguing the Russian track and field team’s case Tuesday in Geneva at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
WADA chief spokesman Ben Nichols tweeted that his organization would recommend that Russians be banned from all global competition, including Rio, until “culture change” is achieved.
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However IOC could pass the buck, instead putting the responsibilities of sanctioning Russian programs to UWW and other individual sports’ federations themselves. The crux of the matter comes down to a comprehensive ban from Rio of all Russian sports, of which the President of the International Gymnastics Federation has said ‘(blanket bans) never have been and will never be just, ‘ or a ban on sports in which there is evidence of mass and systematic tampering.
