Russia’s track and field team is already barred from Rio and the decision to exclude Stepanova, who served a doping ban exposing the rot inside Russian athletics, was greeted with approval by officials.
Advertisement
“We missed a moment in time to honour the world’s clean athletes and send a bold message to the world that corruption, cheating and manipulating sport will not be tolerated”, Wickenheiser said.
Once again, the people who run the Olympics just can’t say no to Vladimir Putin.
Drug Free Sport New Zealand chief executive Graeme Steel also criticised the IOC’s decision to “pass the hot potato to worldwide federations”.
The IOC said Russian athletes will have to satisfy the 28 federations who run the summer Olympic sports that they are clean.
Twelve days ahead of the start of Rio’s games, the committee announced the criteria that every Russian athlete must fulfill to compete. Some critics said that the International Olympic Committee had dodged its responsibility to punish Russian Federation for what they said was an unprecedented effort to undermine fair play at the Olympics. “At the end of the day, Russians are not the only sportsmen or women who have been found doping”.
– ruled that Russian athletes who are cleared for the games will be subjected to a “rigorous additional out-of-competition testing program”.
Anti-doping leaders had argued that the extent of state-backed doping in Russian Federation had tainted the country’s entire sports system, and the only way to ensure a level playing field was to bar the whole team, even if some innocent athletes will lose out. Their governing bodies are thought likely to act decisively to follow the legally-tested precedent set by the International Association of Athletics Federations in wiping Russia from its entry list.
In addition, the worldwide sports federations were ordered to check each Russian athlete’s drug-testing record, with only doping controls conducted outside Russia counting toward eligibility, before authorizing them to compete.
Tygart expressed dismay at the decision to bar Stepanova, describing it as “incomprehensible” and saying it “will undoubtedly deter whistleblowers in the future from coming forward”.
Fourteen national anti-doping agencies – including the US, Germany and Japan – as well as several national Olympic committees had demanded Russia’s exclusion from Rio.
“The decision regarding Russian participation and the confusing mess left in its wake is a significant blow to the rights of clean athletes”, Tygart said.
The IP Report was made by WADA’s Canadian law professor Richard McLaren.
“Due to a variety of problems in the Village, including gas, electricity and plumbing I have decided that no Australian team member will move into our allocated building”, said the head of the country’s delegation Kitty Chiller.
WADA officials said they were “disappointed” with the IOC’s decision, which director general Olivier Niggli said would “inevitably lead to a lack of harmonisation, potential challenges and lesser protection for clean athletes”. Improbably, Bach will invite now Stepanova and her husband to watch the action in Rio as guests of the IOC.
Worldwide federations would have to seek information from Wada about each athlete and their national sport federation before deciding whether they could compete. It is leaving it up to global federations to decide which Russian athletes to accept in their sports.
Advertisement
Any Russian athlete who had ever been sanctioned for doping would not be allowed to compete, regardless of whether they had served out their sanction period.
