“The IOC has no choice but to suspend or ban the national Olympic committee of Russia”, Paul Melia, chief executive of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, said.
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This unprecedented call for such a ban is based on what the United States and Canadian National Anti-doping Agencies say are the findings of the independent McLaren Report.
The draft letter calls for the IOC to act by July 26 to ensure that Russia’s Olympic Committee and sports federations will not be allowed in Rio de Janeiro, the AP reported.
Russian Federation has been banned from worldwide competition since last November when a report by Dick Pound, the former head of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) found evidence of an entrenched culture of cheating and state sponsored doping.
Executive Board member Patrick Hickey has slammed anti-doping agencies in the United States and Canada after they called for a blanket ban on Russian athletes competing at Rio 2016 in a leaked draft letter.
Hickey said International Olympic Committee member Beckie Scott, the Canadian chairman of the WADA athletes commission, was “totally against internationally recognized fair legal process” and may have undermined the integrity and credibility of McLaren’s report.
WADA’s press service said: “On 18 May, Professor McLaren was appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as the Independent Person to head an investigative team charged with determining the facts with respect to the allegations of manipulation of doping control samples and other allegations made by Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Director of the WADA-accredited Moscow Laboratory”.
“The only appropriate, and permissible, course of action in these unprecedented circumstances is for the IOC to immediately suspend the Russian Olympic and Paralympic Committees from the Olympic Movement. and declare that no athlete can represent Russia at the Rio Olympic Games”. “And it must be the same outcome for the Russian contingent at the Paralympics in September”.
“It is clear from the email and letter that both the independence and the confidentiality of the report have been compromised”, he said.
“My concern is that there seems to have been an attempt to agree an outcome before any evidence has been presented”.
Tygart said in a statement the International Olympic Committee must be stern in its response to Russian Federation should the McLaren report be damning.
The Time article says juiced Russian athletes won a total of 15 medals during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
That’s what happened in June when the IOC, acting on the findings of systemic doping in Russian track and field, ruled no Russian athletes in any sport could compete in Rio unless their sport’s global federation determines they are clean and eligible.
The IAAF has said that only long jump athlete Darya Klishina could compete in Rio, and then under a neutral flag.
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With the Rio countdown becoming more urgent, the International Olympic Committee also faces having to send thousands of Games samples out of Brazil for testing unless WADA renews the license for the Rio de Janeiro anti-doping laboratory.
