Joseph de Pencier, head of the 59-member global Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations (iNADO), said it was “a sad day for clean sport” and that the International Olympic Committee “has failed to confront forcefully the findings of evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia corrupting the Russian sport system”.
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Vladimir Putin’s Russian Federation is a sports powerhouse, a huge country seeking to reaffirm its status on the world stage, and a major player in the Olympic movement.
The International Tennis Federation wasted no time in clearing the seven Russian players nominated for Rio.
Russia’s Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko, said the decision cleared the way for Russian participation. “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”.
While this report was about the system he revealed in Russian Federation and the Moscow laboratory, for the International Olympic Committee the hard part was to take decisions about individual athletes and how it affects each and every one of them.
Isinbayeva also called for Stepanova to be “banned for life”. Opening Ceremonies are on August 5.
“And I’m angry that the IOC itself does nothing when Russian Federation cheats the other national Olympic committees around the world”.
After all the previous cases of politics prevailing over sports (the war in Georgia just before the 2008 Olympics, the 2014 coup in Ukraine right after the Sochi Olympics and the unprecedented USA pressure on Federation Internationale de Football Association officials) many states are having second thoughts about the need to deal with the International Olympic Committee now that the U.S. feels free to throw a whole country out of sports.
The minister went on to say that the decision to ban Russian athletes who has even been sanctioned for doping from the Rio 2016 Olympics is fair, reports Tass.
However, it also said that because of the rules of natural justice, individual justice, which everyone is entitled to, has to be applied.
Russian Federation is likely to be without some of its top athletes at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro thanks to an International Olympic Committee rule prohibiting former dopers from competing.
But at its second emergency meeting in a week, the IOC’s executive board opted against a collective sanction and asked all worldwide sports federations affected by Russia’s cheating to make their own judgements on eligibility against a set of strict criteria.
That appears to rule out swimmer Yulia Efimova, the world champion in the 100-meter breaststroke, 2012 Olympic silver-medal-winning weightlifter Tatiana Kashirina and two-time Olympic bronze-medal-winning cyclist Olga Zabelinskaya.
All three have previously served a doping ban.
He added that it was frustrating the International Olympic Committee would “pass the baton to sports federations who may lack the adequate expertise or collective will to appropriately address the situation within the short window prior to the games”. “The decision regarding the Russians participating and the confusing mess left in its wake is a significant blow to the rights of clean athletes”.
Tygart said the decision to deny Stepanova an Olympics spot is “incomprehensible and will undoubtedly deter whistleblowers in the future from coming forward”.
IOC President Thomas Bach has defended the decision not to ban all Russians from the Olympics by insisting clean athletes should not be punished.
In his teleconference with the media, Bach said the decision was in the individual interests of Russia’s clean athletes.
Back acknowledged the decision “might not please everybody”.
However, Sunday’s announcement means Russian athletes “will be accepted by the IOC” to compete in Rio if they can meet strict anti-doping criteria, have no doping history and are given the green light by their own sports governing body. In its deliberations, the IOC EB was guided by a fundamental rule of the Olympic Charter to protect clean athletes and the integrity of sport. “I am sure the national team will show good results at the Olympic Games and we will do everything to support them”. However, there will be greater oversight of Russian athletes, saying that they can not have “the “presumption of innocence” ” applied to them.
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“I hope that the majority of global federations will very promptly confirm the right of (Russian) sportspeople in different types of sports to take part in the Olympic Games”, Mr Mutko said.
