Stepanova’s hopes of running in Rio next month as an independent athlete where dashed when the International Olympic Committee ruled on Sunday that no Russian with a doping background could take part.
Advertisement
“This may not please everybody, but this result is one which is respecting the rules of justice and all the clean athletes all over the world”.
The 28 worldwide federations whose sports compete in the Summer Olympics now face a complex challenge. They would be withdrawn from the team, he added. That ban was recently upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, establishing legal precedent.
That came following the publication of the a damning report by Professor Richard McLaren, which found that doped athletes representing Russian Federation had been “directed [and] controlled” at state level.
The decision to ban Stepanova from running, and yet invite her as a guest, was roundly criticised by anti-doping experts and investigative journalists who have heralded the Stepanovs’ contribution to exposing what many believe to be sport’s worst doping scandal.
Officials promised to enact a series of reforms, overhauling the leadership of their track federation, subjecting athletes to additional testing and inviting global observers into their national anti-doping operations.
It added this commission will “have to consider any further information” that comes from McLaren’s investigation now the Canadian law professor has been given the green light by the International Olympic Committee and World Anti-Doping Agency to continue his inquiries.
With WADA and others around the world calling for an outright ban, the IOC’s board held a three-hour teleconference to discuss the matter Sunday.
Seven Russian swimmers have been banned from competing at the 2016 Olympic Games by swimming’s governing body, FINA.
Australian sports minister Sussan Ley said it was a “horrifying thought” that clean athletes might not be able to compete on a level playing field at Rio.
Yuliya Stepanova said the International Olympic Committee had based its decision on “wrong and untrue statements”.
“Clearly it’s going to be very hard for the worldwide federations in the 12 days before Rio to go through what they need to rule in or out athletes, in terms of resources and in terms of time”, said Ley.
Full of remorse for taking drugs, although it is debatable how much choice she had given the state of Russian athletics, she also never asked for any reduction in her sentence, as was her right, for cooperating with the anti-doping authorities. They would be withdrawn from the team, he added.
Advertisement
Under the measures, no Russian athletes who have ever had a doping violation will be allowed into the games, whether or not they have served a sanction, a rule that has not applied to athletes in other countries.
