Unless the ban is lifted, Russian athletics competitors will miss the Rio Olympics in Brazil, set to run August 5-21.
Advertisement
Cross-country skier Alexander Legkov also went on Russian TV to cast doubt on the credibility of Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the now-deposed and currently exiled head of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory.
“As far as Kenya’s participation is concerned across all sports at the Olympic Games in Rio, the IAAF notes that WADA has referred its decision on non-compliance to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and UNESCO for their consideration and action”.
The allegations, along with a recommendation by the WADA foundation board to declare distance-running powerhouse Kenya non-compliant, and a French probe into payments around the election of the 2020 Games host city are casting a dark shadow over the Olympics 12 weeks ahead of opening ceremony in Rio.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s track and field athletes won’t be banned from the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro despite serious concerns over the African country’s anti-doping program, the IAAF said yesterday.
The commission accused certain athletes and sports officials of doping abuse and involvement in other activities related to violations of global regulations on performance enhancing substances. Bottles of urine, he said, were passed to the lab for testing through a small hole in the wall. “This (Times report) is as bad as we’ve seen assuming what Rodchenkov says is true and he does have the knowledge of what was going on”. “It was working like a Swiss watch”.
In the past week, CBS News aired an interview saying that at least four of Russia’s gold medal winners at the Sochi Olympics were using steroids.
As for Rodchenkov, he resigned and fled to Los Angeles fearing for his safety.
In February, after his departure, two of Rodchenkov’s former anti-doping colleagues in Russian Federation died unexpectedly.
Three gold medalists named in the Times report have denied doping.
Rodchenkov has offered to assist in retesting, and to identify any samples which may have been tampered with.
After The New York Times asked Russian officials to respond to the claims, Russia’s Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko, released a statement to the news media calling the revelations “a continuation of the information attack on Russian sport”.
However, an investigation by the New York Times reveals that this success was due in part to “one of the most elaborate – and successful – doping ploys in sports history”.
“The charges against them are baseless”. Kenya celebrated the passing of the law then and hailed it a success, but WADA on Thursday described it as “a complete mess”.
Scott, who has repeatedly called for a wider investigation into doping across all Russian sport, said the report “underlined the importance in leading investigations on these athletes in order to protect the clean athletes”. At the 2015 IAAF World Championships, Kenya brought home 16 medals. No athletes were caught doping.
Advertisement
Zubkov and Legkov are two of Russia’s most prominent winter sports athletes.
