WADA has been among the organizations calling for an outright ban of the Russian national team from Rio, and the International Olympic Committee will reportedly make its final decision on that matter Sunday.
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The news comes one day after the worldwide Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected an appeal from more than 60 track and field athletes from Russia who were seeking to compete despite their national sporting federation’s recent suspension.
Six-time Paralympic champion David Weir welcomed the International Paralympic Committee’s decision to open suspension proceedings against Russian Federation, saying: “It’s about time”.
The IAAF suspension previous year came after an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report which uncovered a culture of state-sponsored doping.
But with Russia’s track and field athletes having their appeal against an International Association of Athletics Federations ban rejected, the runner expressed his sympathy for the clean athletes among them.
“The new reanalysis once again shows the commitment of the International Olympic Committee in the fight against doping”, Olympics president Thomas Bach said in a statement.
The IPC president called the scale of reports’ findings “unimaginable” and said the “findings are of serious concern for everyone committed to clean and honest sport”.
In a separate announcement, the International Olympic Committee stripped a Turkish weightlifter of her silver medal from the Beijing Games after her urine sample came back positive for steroids in new testing.
The IPC have now confirmed that they have received the names of the athletes associated with the disappearing samples.
A decision by its executive board could come on Sunday.
“With so much evidence of systematic state cheating coming to light, I can’t see how you can’t ban the nation as whole”, said Newmarket-raised javelin thrower Goldie Sayers who was denied a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after finishing fourth, behind Russia’s Mariya Abakumova, who won the silver medal before testing positive as part of the recent scandal.
“The new reanalysis once again shows the commitment of the IOC in the fight against doping”, IOC President Thomas Bach said.
Craven said Russia’s NPC would be given the chance to make its case before a decision is made.
Chaired by Aruba’s IOC Legal Affairs Commission representative Nicole Hoevertsz, the Election Committee also includes French judge Guy Canivet, from the IOC Ethics Commission, Australia’s triple Olympic gold medallist James Tomkins, of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, and Ethiopia’s Dagmawit Girmay Berhane, a member of the IOC Members Election Commission.
“I regard the principle of collective punishment as unacceptable”, the 85-year-old wrote in the letter, posted on the Mikhail Gorbachev Foundation website.
Isinbayeva, victor of gold medals at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 a bronze at London 2012, is one of 23 Olympians in the running for election with voting due to begin on Sunday (July 24) when the Olympic Village is due to open in Rio de Janeiro.
For many in the anti-doping community, however, the choice is simple: The extent of state-backed doping in Russian Federation has tainted the country’s entire sports system and the only way to ensure a level playing field is to bar the whole team, even if some innocent athletes will lose out.
‘Before making a decision, NPC Russia will have an opportunity to present its case to the IPC.
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The IAAF banned all of the Russian track and field team over allegations of state-sponsored doping but said athletes who prove they were not tainted by their country’s corrupt system could be cleared.
