Instead of banning Russia from Rio for running a state-sanctioned doping operation, the International Olympic Committee members decided instead Sunday to allow individual sports federations to decide which Russians can compete. In a teleconference held on July 24, 2016 at 16:00 (Swiss time, GMT +2), President Thomas Bach stated that despite state-sponsored doping the entire Russian team will not be banned.
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But now there is the likelihood of some Russian athletes appearing in Rio, with an IOC statement released on Sunday afternoon following their executive board meeting confirming worldwide federations will be tasked with the job of banning those who do not tick all the right boxes.
Rooted as it is in old world blue bloods and augmented by former sportsmen and women co-opted to further the mythology, the membership of the International Olympic Committee has whistled past many a graveyard over the years in order to maintain the franchise’s iconic status.
Drug Free Sport New Zealand chief executive Graeme Steel blasted the IOC’s decision to “pass the hot potato to worldwide federations”.
It’s why the International Olympic Committee ended up with a handful of actions that, frankly, do not live up to the standards of world antidoping rules.
Russia’s current team consists of 387 athletes, a number likely to be sharply reduced by the measure barring Russians with previous doping bans.
U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart said the “IOC has refused to take decisive leadership” in a most important moment for the integrity of the Olympic Games and clean athletes.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has already ruled that Russian track and field competitors will not compete in the event.
Others, especially top political leaders in Moscow, insisted collective punishment would be unjust. It said the presumption of innocence can not be applied to Russian athletes because of the exceptional circumstances revealed by the report.
“The IOC has set down a very strict criteria and the Russians still need to clear the high hurdles to be able to participate in Rio”, Chiller said.
Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko – a key player in the WADA report who has been banned from Rio – hailed the IOC’s “objective” decision.
“The IOC are the guardians of the Olympic ideal”. At the games, athletes gave their tainted urine samples to the independent doping control officers who stored them in labs. These decisions will then be reviewed by an arbiter from the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Many are still waiting for information from McLaren’s report.
New Zealand Commonwealth Games gold medalist and two-time Olympian Moss Burmester has slammed the International Olympic Committee for not issuing a total ban on Russian athletes at the Rio Olympics. Considering the timelines an effort to find a solution seems ambitious but doable.
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Around “80 per cent” of the Russian team regularly undergoes global testing of the kind specified in the IOC criteria, he adds.
