Last month the IOC upheld a ban on Russian track and field athletes at the 2016 Rio Olympics put in place by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the governing body of international track and field.
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Given the revelations in the McLaren report, which was released on Monday by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which said Russia was guilty of state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics, the IOC has also demanded that all Russian athletes that competed in the Sochi games should have their drug samples re-tested.
WADA recommended a complete ban of Russian competitors from the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games following the publication of the report, which concluded that the government, security services and sporting authorities of the country colluded to hide doping across a range of sports.
But 68 Russian track-and-field athletes are appealing this week to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to compete in Rio, with a decision due Thursday.
Mr Mutko told Russian agency R-Sport the accusations against him are “absolutely unreal, and impossible”. The EB also took note of the actions already being undertaken by the IFs in cooperation with WADA with regard to targeted worldwide tests of Russian athletes in accordance with the declaration of the Olympic Summit.
The investigation released Monday confirmed a scheme run out of the anti-doping lab in Moscow that ensnared 28 summer and winter sports, from track to snowboarding to table tennis.
The case is separate from the McLaren Report, which on Monday detailed a vast cover-up of Russian doping cases, alleging the Russian Sports Ministry ordered hundreds of positive test results to be concealed, including many in athletics.
“The fact that there is a bit out there on the wire, I think that is a hopeful expression by a member of my staff, but it is serious, the whole report from Richard McLaren”.
Following the report release, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would carry out an investigation of allegations, adding that officials implicated in it as direct perpetrators of doping violations would be suspended through course of investigation.
It will weigh the ban “versus the right to individual justice”, the International Olympic Committee said in a statement.
US Anti-Doping Agency Chief Executive Travis T. Tygart said the report had revealed “a mind-blowing level of corruption” in Russian sport and all the way up to Putin’s government. The IOC also will investigate every Russian athlete who participated in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and asked that all winter sports federations halt their preparations for major events scheduled for Russia, such as world championships.
It’s no sure thing the Russians will receive a blanket ban.
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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“The IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated”, Bach said in a statement announcing the IOC conference on Tuesday to consider provisional sanctions.
