The World Anti-Doping Agency endorsed barring Russian athletes from worldwide competitions-including next month’s Rio Olympics-on Monday in response to a damning independent investigation that confirmed the operation of a widespread, state-sanctioned doping program during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and beyond.
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The IOC executive held emergency telephone talks after a World Anti-Doping Agency commissioned report said there had been state-sanctioned doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other major events.
A new report claims Russia’s Sports Ministry directed, controlled and oversaw the manipulation of urine samples provided by its athletes.
As a result, WADA has asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to forbid Russian teams from participating in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
That suspension has been in place since last November and came after a WADA Independent Commission report detailed findings including a “deeply rooted culture of cheating” in Russian athletics.
The leaking of the letter, which was also circulated to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) athlete committee and has the support of national bodies in Germany, Japan and New Zealand, has been criticised by other sport’s world governing bodies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently denied doping by athletes coordinated by the state.
USADA chief Travis Tygart said the report “concluded, beyond a reasonable doubt, a mind-blowing level of corruption within both Russian sport and government that goes right to the field of play”. “Therefore, the International Olympic Committee will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated”.
There are many athletes and anti-doping agencies fighting to have Russian Federation banned from participating in upcoming Olympic events due to these recent findings.
Pound said prohibiting Russia from taking part in the Rio games wouldn’t hurt the competition, noting the absence of Russian athletes during the Eastern Bloc boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
WADA has since called for all Russian athletes to be prevented from competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In a statement published by the Kremlin, Putin said politics were interfering with sports as they were during the Cold War.
“Yes, the forms of such interference have changed, but the aim is the same as before: to make sport an instrument of geopolitical pressure”.
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International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach called the Russian practices a “shocking and unprecedented attack” on sport, saying that the IOC would not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated.
