The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has instead ruled that each individual sports federation should determine whether Russian athletes are clean and eligible to compete.
Advertisement
The decision follows a report of an independent commission of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) in which Canadian law professor Richard McLaren said that Russian Federation had operated a state-sponsored doping programme from 2011 to 2015.
A statement read: “On the basis of the findings of the IP [McLaren] Report, all Russian athletes seeking entry to the Olympic Games Rio 2016 are considered to be affected by a system subverting and manipulating the anti-doping system”.
The IAAF meanwhile offered to lend its expertise to other federations, having already opted to ban Russian track and field competitors from Rio, a move upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport following a Russian Olympic Committee appeal last week. The global sports federations will carry out an individual analysis of each athlete’s anti-doping record taking into account only reliable worldwide tests.
The IOC has said it would seek a balance between “collective punishment” and “individual justice”.
WADA president Craig Reedie said the organization is “disappointed that the IOC did not heed WADA’s executive committee recommendations” after investigators “exposed, beyond a reasonable doubt, a state-run doping program in Russian Federation that seriously undermines the principles of clean sport”.
“It shows it is determined to fight doping but also mindful of its charter to protect the rights of all athletes, which in this case are the clean and innocent Russian athletes”.
Calls to sanction the Russian Olympic team have grown louder over the past three months with the Rio Games set to open on August 5.
“It seems to me as if they are nearly passing the buck on to the individual sport’s federations”.
That means that while convicted cheats such as American sprinter Justin Gatlin will be present, there will be no place for two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbaeva, who has never been charged with doping, or whistleblower Yulia Stepanova, who had been cleared to compete as a neutral athlete.
“Furthermore, the sanction to which she was subject and the circumstances in which she denounced the doping practices which she had used herself, do not satisfy the ethical requirements for an athlete to enter the Olympic Games”.
In the meantime, committee president Thomas Bach led a conference call of his executive board to discuss the ban.
Advertisement
This would further limit the amount of athletes from the nation at the Games, with long jumper Darya Klishina the only Russian track and field competitor due to feature in Rio.
