And if you feel like banning a whole team is the right action, then I’m all for it. As I said, rules are rules and doping violations in track and field are getting really bad.
Advertisement
The six-time Olympic champion was speaking in London shortly after the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected an appeal by 68 Russian athletes seeking to overturn a ban imposed by the IAAF, following allegations of state-sponsored doping. In a statement Thursday, the International Olympic Committee said it “takes note” of the CAS ruling upholding the track and field ban. “In the opinion of CAS, because the national federation is suspended, normally these athletes should not compete in Rio, but the International Olympic Committee was not a party in these conversations and our decision is not binding on the International Olympic Committee”.
Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, who was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, issued a report Monday that accused Russia’s sports ministry of orchestrating a vast doping system that affected 28 summer and winter Olympic sports.
The decision vacated Russia’s track and field Olympic athletes, with only two cleared so far to compete as “neutrals”.
Bolt’s outing at the Olympic Stadium, the scene of his three Olympic gold medal wins at London 2012 in the 100m, 200m and sprint relay, will be his last before the Rio Games.
The three-man panel ruled that the Russian Olympic Committee “is not entitled to nominate Russian track and field athletes to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games considering that they are not eligible to participate under the IAAF competition rules”.
The CAS ruling though could go a long way towards deciding what the International Olympic Committee does with Russia, whose doping programme was laid bare in a report this week detailing how urine samples of doping Russian athletes were swapped at the Sochi 2014 Olympics through a hole in a wall.
IAAF President Sebastian Coe, who has declared the ban is crucial to protecting the integrity of the competition, said it was “not a day for triumphant statements”.
“From a Judo perspective, the presence of Russian athletes is very important, as the Russian Judo Federation is a prominent member of the International Judo Federation, with a notable contribution to the development of judo, Russian judo playing a great role in the history of our sport”.
A minority of Russian athletes think the cloud has a silver lining. It is a sporting powerhouse whose absence from Rio would create the biggest crisis in decades for the Olympic movement.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry”, she told state TV.
However, some Russian fans have turned on her since she received permission to compete, calling her a traitor and demanding she refuse her Olympic spot in solidarity with banned teammates.
“If you have the proof and you catch somebody I definitely feel you should take action”, the 29-year-old Bolt said. “The IAAF gave us its criteria and Dasha was lucky that it worked out for her…We’ll cheer her on”, she added, using Klishina’s nickname.
Advertisement
The IAAF has also allowed Russian doping whistleblower Yulia Stepanova to race, but the 800-meter runner is struggling with injury and has not set a competitive time this year. The CAS has paved the way for other Russian athletes to follow suit, only requiring that they get repeatedly tested in other countries, reported the BBC.
