The United States and Canadian anti-doping agency have called for a potential ban of all Russian competitors from the Rio Games, which start on August 5, if the McLaren report was damning enough.
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A ban is being considered after Russian Federation was accused Monday of “a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games” following an independent World Anti-Doping Agency commissioned report.
“Because of the detailed references to the manipulation of samples during the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014 the IOC asks all International Olympic Winter Sports Federations to freeze their preparations for major events in Russia”, the IOC report said.
Following an emergency teleconference, the International Olympic Committee said that it would not grant any accreditation to any official of the Russian Sports Ministry or any other person mentioned in the report, Sport24 reported.
The IOC said it will not grant accreditation to any official of the Russian Ministry of Sport or anyone implicated in the report for the Games in Rio.
The Russian track and field team has already been banned – but that decision is contested at the Court of Arbitration for Sport with a decision likely to be announced by the end of the week.
Russian track and field athletes who maintain they are not guilty of wrongdoing will learn on Thursday if they have successfully appealed the IAAF ban.
Meanwhile, in a statement Monday, WADA called on “the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee to consider, under their respective charters, to decline entries, for Rio 2016, of all athletes submitted by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and the Russian Paralympic Committee”.
Hansen says “profound cultural, organizational, and procedural changes (are) required before all sports can confidently welcome clean sportsmen and sportswomen from Russian Federation to future global events”.
Guy Canivet, vice-chair of the IOC Ethics Commission, has been named chair of the IOC disciplinary commission, with Robin Mitchell, Yang Yang, Andrew Ryan and Wolfgang Schobersberger also appointed.
“I’m unwaveringly confident in our report”, McLaren said, noting the two Russian government-backed groups were “directly involved in the state-overseen programme”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said those accused in the WADA report would be suspended as during the investigation. That ban was imposed in November by the IAAF and upheld last month.
The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, which represents the governing bodies of 28 sports on the Olympic program, says “it is important to focus on the need for individual justice in all these cases”. It puts the International Olympic Committee in the position of ruling against one of its biggest supporters, a nation that spent more than $50 billion hosting the Winter Games in Sochi just two years ago.
The decision to deliver one is rife with political ramifications that involve a country that sent the third-most athletes (more than 430) to the previous Summer Olympics, four years ago in London.
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These provisional measures apply until 31 December 2016.
