Not when he talks darkly about returning to the days of Olympic boycotts in 1980 and 1984.
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The IOC said this week that it would not organise or give patronage to any sports event in Russia, including the planned 2019 European Games, and that no member of the Russian Sports Ministry implicated in the report would be accredited for Rio. “However it recognized the IAAF right to set such criteria that, regrettably, ban our athletes from the Olympic Games”.
Rio 2016 is committed to clean Olympic Games and will follow the decisions on Russian athletes made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and international sports federations, organising committee president Carlos Nuzman said on Sunday (24 July).
Spineless, yes, but that’s to be expected. It insisted that “the “presumption of innocence” can not be applied to them”. I think every athlete should understand that doping is not fair, that doping is wrong towards other countries’ athletes.
Yet Russian athletes will still compete in Rio.
“It’s sent out the wrong message to athletes and coaches”, said Davies, 74.
The unofficial explanation was more telling.
The decision for the International Olympic Committee was loaded with geopolitical ramifications. CAS dismissed the appeal by the Russian Olympic Committee against the IAAF Thursday.
Russian athlete Yuliya Stepanova has been barred from running at the Olympics as a “neutral” athlete despite exposing Russia’s doping programme.
Russian officials have welcomed the IOC’s decision, expressing optimism that Russian athletes will meet the criteria.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenko, Darya Kasatkina, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina will be the female tennis players representing Russian Federation at the games.
That “the absence of a positive national anti-doping test can not be considered sufficient” by the federations.
It’s enough to make even the true believers wonder.
He told The Guardian he was “surprised more athletes are not more vocal about this, especially those with a powerful voice in Olympic sport”.
On Sunday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held a meeting of its executive board to discuss possible blanket ban of Russian athletes at the Rio Olympics.
“When you look at some federations, who voluntarily closed their eyes on doping in the past, you have to wonder if they really can clean things up”.
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Both Mutko and Russian President Vladimir Putin later sought to discredit Rodchenkov, with Putin saying last week that the allegations contained in the WADA report “are built on the testimony of one – a person with a scandalous reputation”. Because doping, of course, is a universal evil and not exclusively Russia’s problem.
