It may all come down to the lawyers.
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THE International Olympic Committee said yesterday it would take up to a week to decide whether to ban Russian Federation from the Rio Olympics over its “state” doping machine.
That was before Richard McLaren’s 103-page report revealed a doping programme of staggering proportions – something Bach himself described as “a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and the Olympic Games”.
“We expect a decision within seven days on the participation of Russian competitors in Rio”, IOC media relations chief Emmanuelle Moreau told AFP. Should the court rule Thursday in their favor, it would seemingly rule out the chance of the International Olympic Committee imposing a blanket ban.
Regardless of how the various doping-related cases turn out, Zhukov said a Russian Olympic boycott was out of the question.
The Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, retaliating for the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow that followed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
The 15-member International Olympic Committee executive board met by teleconference Tuesday to consider its moves following McLaren’s report.
It also recommended that IFs from sports implicated in the McLaren report consider their responsibilities under the World Anti-Doping Code with regard to their Russian National Federations. It said the ministry had help from Russia’s intelligence service, the FSB.
“One of the ways you can do that is to say: ‘We just don’t want to play with you any more”.
WADA has subsequently urged a total ban on Russian athletes competing in the Olympics.
Rodchenkov had spoken of a clandestine night-time operation in which he said staff secretly took urine samples from the lab via a “mouse hole” cut into a wall, and replaced them with clean samples taken from the same athlete months earlier and sometimes manipulated.
“If all the operational precautions to promote and permit doping by Russian athletes proved to have been ineffective for whatever reason, the laboratory provided a failsafe mechanism”.
He noted that Russian Federation would continue interaction with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The McLaren report alleged 11 failed drug tests in rowing had been covered up by Russian officials.
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All global Olympic winter sports federations have been asked by the IOC to “freeze” their preparations for major events in Russia, such as World Championships, World Cups or other major worldwide competitions under their responsibility, and to “actively look for alternative organisers”.
