But while the IOC and boss Thomas Bach can defend their decision to avoid what he labelled “the nuclear option” and instead hand the ball off to global sports federations with the result that the majority of Russian Olympians were allowed to compete at Rio, Craven and the IPC need no such defence. After escaping a blanket ban from the Olympics, Russia was kicked out of the upcoming Paralympics on Sunday as the ultimate punishment for the state running a doping operation that polluted sports by prioritizing “medals over morals”.
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Only one athlete was given a doping sanction at the Sochi Paralympic Winter Games in 2014, but since then the McLaren Report for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found that Russia’s sports ministry manipulated urine samples provided by its athletes between 2011 and 2015.
“These facts really do hurt”, Craven said.
And now there are athletes in Rio who simply don’t know whether they’re competing on a level playing field or not.
The Paralympics’ announcement came after the International Olympic Committee refused to ban Russian Federation from the Olympics and later rounded on WADA for its handling of the doping case.
Russian Paralympic Committee chief Vladimir Lukin stresses that “the vast majority of our sportsmen are absolutely clean” as Russia prepare to appeal against their ban. “If somebody is taking steroids for weeks and months and has a whole system around him, there is so much cheating energy I do not think such athletes should compete ever again”. This means an actual ban on our athletes to compete at the Paralympics.
“Their win at all costs attitude is disgusting to me”.
The 2016 Paralympics are scheduled to be held in Rio from September 7-18.
On Sunday the International Paralympic Committee said it is suspending Russian athletes from the 2016 Rio Paralympics with immediate effect.
“We will fight for our Paralympians”, he told Tass. It is likely, however, that the IPC’s stance will offer some solace to those opposing the pass – and IPC president Sir Philip Craven has advised that “the Russian system has catastrophically failed its athletes”.
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In the case of the Paralympians, researchers who tested samples from athletes revealed that at least 27 samples from several sports showed some influence from the Russian government, including 11 positive results that were switched to negative.
