The IOC has already banned Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko and all other ministry officials from the Rio Games and withdrawn backing for global events in Russia over the doping programme revealed by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren this week.
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But Dick Pound, who was WADA’s first president, said he feared the International Olympic Committee was loath to take such a step, leaving doubts over any athlete participating under the Russian flag.
Pound said he understands the International Olympic Committee delaying the decision for fear of legal reprisal from Russian athletes, but says they’ve missed an opportunity by not embracing WADA’s recommendations. The Olympics are supposed to be about fair sports and comradery and competing and when you have a country that has had so many violations against doping, you do need to take a hard stand against it. And quite honestly, for me anyway, my trust for the Russian athletes in track and field has been broken.
The IOC executive decided on Tuesday to put back a decision on whether to ban Russia from the Rio Games, which start August 5, until after a Court of Arbitration ruling Thursday on whether 68 Russian athletes can take part in the Games.
The report states ” the surprise result of the Sochi investigation was the revelation of the extent of State oversight and directed control of the Moscow Laboratory in processing, and covering up urine samples of Russian athletes from virtually all sports before and after the Sochi Games”. The document concluded that Russia’s security services and Sports Ministry ran an elaborate “state-sponsored” doping program across dozens of sports for a number of years and had covered up doping at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.
Russia’s Olympic Committee pressed on Wednesday with its preparations for the Rio Olympic Games despite the threat of a ban for state-run doping hanging over the country.
Makhov concluded that Russia’s involvement in the 2016 Olympic Games (over 400 athletes) ensures that those who medal in the tournaments have beaten the best opposition available on an worldwide scale. “And in this case who will protect her rights if she is banned from the Olympics?” The International Association of Athletics Federations upheld the ban last month, a decision accepted by the IOC. One is doping whistleblower Yulia Stepanova, the other is Florida-based long jumper Darya Klishina, who has received threats online from Russian fans who think she would betray her country by competing if the rest of the team is banned.
Athletes included in the chemical cover-up were track and field competitors, cyclists, wrestlers, lifters and swimmers.
Peskov said Russian Federation is ready and willing to listen to the opinion of WADA, and would continue interaction and contacts with the IOC.
It could be left for individual International Federations to decide if Russia can compete in their sports.
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The Russian Olympic Committee has acknowledged doping problems but insists that collective punishment against possibly clean athletes would leave “the integrity of the Olympic Movement… endangered”.
