THE International Olympic Committee said yesterday it would take up to a week to decide whether to ban Russian Federation from the Rio Olympics over its “state” doping machine.
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The agency did not provide details of the offenses. “Furthermore, the Investigation reveals that State oversight and directed control of the Moscow laboratory in processing and covering up urine samples of Russian athletes was applied to all sport disciplines whose urine samples were being analyzed by the Moscow laboratory.” said WADA’s President Sir Craig Reedie in a statement.
Wrestler Jordan Burroughs is counting the minutes to Rio.
Dick Pound, the International Olympic Committee member whose report into doping led to Russia’s ban from track and field athletics previous year, claims that the International Olympic Committee are “very reluctant” to ban Russian Federation from the Olympics.
A Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling on their participation is expected on Thursday.
The Russian delegation to Rio 2016 will comprise more than 700 people, Alexander Zhukov, the Russian Olympic Committee president, told journalists.
The IOC has two options to dealing with Russia; to completely ban Russia from the Rio Olympics that commence in August, or to allow individual sporting federations to execute separate bans.
“I do get the impression, reading between the lines, that the International Olympic Committee is for some reason very reluctant to think about a total exclusion of the Russian team”, said Pound, speaking to the BBC.
The IOC said after Tuesday’s executive talks it will “explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes” against “the right to individual justice”. You’re cheating. You’re destroying the competitions in which you’re participating.
Evan Bach has called for a way to let clean athletes compete in Rio.
He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not taken any decisions on Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko. That system, which the McLaren report termed the Disappearing Positive Methodology, affected virtually all of Russian sport as the report detailed covered-up tests in 29 Olympic sports plus Paralympic sport.
According to WADA, the Russian government tampered with the doping results of their athletes during the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
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That ban followed similar revelations of rampant doping with support from Moscow.
