The Russian Paralympic teams, however, weren’t so lucky: they have been completely banned from the upcoming Paralympics in Rio due to alleged widespread Russian doping during the 2014 Sochi Paralympics.
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Ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board tasked its international federations with assessing the eligibility of Russian athletes against clear criteria, including whether they had been tested internationally and had no previous doping sanctions.
A new investigation was began after the report by the independent committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) under the leadership of Richard McLaren. As Deadspin mentions, at least 35 Russian Paralympians were named in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Russian doping report.
Russian Federation finished second in the medal standings at the 2012 London Paralympics. Their medals over morals mentality disgusts me.
Sports committees across the globe called for Russia to be banned from the Olympics but the International Olympic Committee chose to let each sports federation to make their own decision regarding athletes from Russia.
Wada said it supported the decision, adding it was “is in the interest of clean athletes and the clean sport movement”.
“Tragically this situation is not about athletes cheating a system, but about a state-run system that is cheating the athletes”, Craven told reporters.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said earlier Sunday that he would not be surprised if the IPC took a different decision to the IOC as there is a distinction between the winter and summer Games, in terms of the global federations involved.
Craven and the IPC didn’t make their decision without giving Russian Federation the benefit of the doubt.
In addition, the release of the International Paralympic Committee reports that the Russian athletes won’t be able to perform at the Paralympics in Brazil individually.
In reaction, Russian Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko said Russia would fight the ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and if necessary through a civil court.
The IPC now planned to re-analyse every Russian sample from Sochi.
But this is the first time a country’s entire team has been banned from competing because of doping.
In the International Olympic Committee case “you had a corrupt IAAF (athletics federation) at the top and a corrupt national federation” while “they (IPC) only have one national federation; they have to take a blanket decision”. “Their unanimous decision goes a long way towards inspiring us all – most importantly clean athletes – and upholding the Paralympic values we admire”.
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Craven revealed that the IPC’s governing board had suspended the Russian Paralympic Committee with immediate effect and that it had 21 days in which to lodge an appeal. “No stone should be left unturned to ensure that athletes can compete on a level playing field”.
