Now, the World Anti-Doping Agency wants Russian athletes out of the Olympics.Things just seem to go wrong right off the bat-Rio de Janeiro’s state of financial emergency, the death of a jaguar used as a mascot and now this.
Advertisement
Reedie said WADA is working to establish non-binding guidelines that will help the IOC and global sports federations identify exceptions to the Russian ban – notably, Russian athletes who trained in other countries that had robust, clean anti-doping systems.
Yet, even ahead of Monday’s WADA commission report, Russian officials poured suspicion on the WADA commission’s independence, noting calls from the USA and nine other countries’ anti-doping agencies for Russia’s outright suspension if the McLaren report found Russia guilty of wrongdoing.
On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee banned officials from the Russian Sports Ministry and other administrators alleged to have taken part in the doping program.
With the Rio Games due to start August 5, US Olympic Committee chief executive Scott Blackmun said the IOC, WADA and world governing bodies must “impose sanctions that are appropriate in relation to the magnitude of these offenses and give clean athletes some measure of comfort they will be competing on a level playing field in Rio”.
It also called for Russian officials implicated in the scandal to be sacked and for “Russian government officials to be denied access to worldwide competitions, including Rio 2016”. It will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice.
Putin also noted that much like the Soviet and American boycotts of past Olympics, politics was again at the forefront of the current Russian doping scandal.
Canadian sports lawyer Richard McLaren, who headed the WADA investigation, said Zhelanova and Rodionova had worked closely with Russian Deputy Sports Minister Yury Nagornykh to cover up positive doping tests by Russian sports people since 2011. President Vladimir Putin released a statement Monday, hours after the Sochi report was published, suggesting that the claims had been made “to make sports an instrument of geopolitical pressure; to formulate a negative image” of Russian Federation. That is already the case with the IAAF, which barred Russia’s track and field athletes from the Games following previous WADA reports. McLaren’s investigation found those bottles had been tampered with in an effort to protect a list of doped Russian athletes competing in Sochi.
Smith said time was running out for additional New Zealanders to fill spots in Rio that might open up following a Russian ban.
IOC President Thomas Bach called the revelations a “shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games” and said the IOC wouldn’t hesitate to apply the toughest sanctions available.
The summer sports federations prefer that doping allegations are handled on an individual basis.
The association made it clear it does not support a blanket ban.
WADA and other anti-doping officials urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to consider the unprecedented step of excluding the entire Russian Federation team from the Rio de Janeiro Games. “The allegations against Russian athletes are built on the testimony of one – a person with a scandalous reputation”, the Russian leader said in a statement issued on the Kremlin’s official website.
A ban for this Olympics – at least – is the only reasonable response.
Mutko, who has been Russia’s sports minister since 2008 and has played a huge role in the country’s hosting of numerous major sports events in recent years, has received a vote of confidence from his boss, Vladimir Putin.
“This means that the eligibility of each Russian athlete will have to be decided by his or her International Federation (IF) based on an individual analysis of his or her international anti-doping record”, it said.
Advertisement
The IOC said the “provisional measures” would apply until December 31, and be reviewed by the IOC that month.
