The IOC rejected calls for Russia to be banned from the Rio Games over its doping record on Sunday, putting the onus on global sports federations to decide whether individual athletes should be allowed to compete.
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Citing evidence in McLaren’s report of doping among Russian Paralympic athletes, the International Paralympic Committee said Friday it will decide next month whether to exclude the country from the September 7-18 event in Rio.
Athletes who have previously served doping bans will not be eligible while worldwide federations will also analyse an athlete’s testing history.
The IOC’s ethics committee, which reviewed her case, considered that before she provided evidence of doping in Russia, Stepanova served a two-year ban for irregularities in her athlete biological passport and was part of the doping system for at least five years.
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, IOC warned that additional sanctions and measures may be imposed following the final report of the IP and due legal procedure by the IOC Disciplinary Commission.
The IAAF had previously granted Russian track athlete and whistle-blower Yuliya Stepanova permission to compete in the games as an “independent neutral athlete” – because of her “truly exceptional contribution to the protection and promotion of clean athletes”.
Greg Rutherford has criticised the International Olympic Committee for failing to impose a blanket ban on Russian Federation.
“It would be quite hard for us to think we should ban an entire team, which will include some cyclists who are not implicated in any of these stories we’ve been hearing”, said Brian Cookson, president of the International Cycling Union.
All Russian track and field athletes have already been banned from the Rio Olympics and that hasn’t changed.
Putin complained after the doping report was published July 18 that sport was being turned into a tool of “geopolitical pressure” in ways similar to those that led to boycotts of the 1980 Moscow games and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics at the height of the Cold War.
The IOC has instead passed responsibility to individual federations of the 28 sports in the Summer Games to check the records of Russian competitors in the wake of a second World Anti-Doping Agency-funded investigation, which found proof of a doping programme directed by the Russian state.
Russian Federation is likely to be without some of its top athletes at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro thanks to an International Olympic Committee rule prohibiting former dopers from competing.
All three have previously served doping bans. Russian athletes who participated in different competitions in all sports have submitted more than 3,000 doping samples.
On a conference call with reporters Sunday, IOC president Thomas Bach said the IOC’s decision had been hard and that he was aware it would not please everybody. Many are still waiting for information from McLaren’s report.
However, Sunday’s announcement means Russian athletes “will be accepted by the IOC” to compete in Rio if they can meet strict anti-doping criteria, have no doping history and are given the green light by their own sports governing body.
Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov presented his case to the IOC board at the beginning of Sunday’s meeting, promising full cooperation with investigations and guaranteeing “a complete and comprehensive restructuring of the Russian anti-doping system”.
That report was not specific enough to overcome the IOC’s stance that individual athletes shouldn’t be punished when they haven’t been individually implicated.
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The FSB is Russia’s federal security service, while the CSP is involved in the training of Russian athletes.
