Russia’s participation in Rio is hanging in the balance after the International Olympics Committee said on Tuesday it would “explore legal options” for banning the country from the Games.
Advertisement
That report found that doping of Russian athletes had been “directed [and] controlled” at state level and prompted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to call for a blanket ban.
Russian athletes won more than 70 track and field medals over the five Summer Games held since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the first in the post-Soviet era.
Forty-five more athletes, including 31 medalists, have been caught for doping after retesting of samples from the last two Summer Olympics, the IOC said Friday.
The IOC said Sibel Ozkan tested positive for stanozolol and was ordered to return her medal in the 48-kilogram class. The 28-year-old lifter also faces a possible ban from the International Weightlifting Federation. The IPC is sending 19 samples from the Sochi Paralympic Winter Games for immediate further analysis after McLaren’s investigators said they could have been doctored by Russian authorities.
The extent of Russia’s “state-sponsored” doping program, which oversaw the manipulation athletes’ drugs tests at major global competitions between 2011 and 2015, was revealed earlier this week in a report compiled for the World Anti-Doping Agency by Canadian sports lawyer Richard McLaren.
The Paralympic Committee plans to announce during the week of August 1 whether it will suspend Russia’s team.
“I am deeply anxious by the fact there also were Russian citizens among officials and athletes who used doping and falsification for the sake of “victory at any price”.
And there is set to be more bad news on the way with more samples from Beijing and London – specifically aimed at medal winners – set to be conducted throughout and beyond the Rio Games.
The IOC and the CAS decision said that Klishina could compete under the Russian flag.
The 15 positives from London covered athletes from nine countries and two sports.
Whether it will persuade the International Olympic Committee to make such actions academic by banning the entire Russian delegation is another matter, as all indications suggest International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach remains reluctant to take such a drastic and unprecedented step.
However, despite the decision, enforced by the International Olympic Committee and upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport yesterday, following a failed appeal by the Russian Olympic Committee, the ruling has been deemed not strong enough, with many calling for a complete ban on Russia competing in Rio.
Advertisement
The IOC’s executive board is holding its second emergency meeting to discuss the crisis on Sunday and has promised to resolve the matter by Wednesday, which would be just over a week before Rio’s opening ceremony. “For me the principle of collective punishment is unacceptable”.
