The country’s track and field athletes have been suspended from global competition since a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation a year ago found evidence that Russian Federation had conducted a mass cover-up among its athletes.
Advertisement
Earlier this year the World Anti-Doping Agency announced that Russian swimming was being scrutinized for allegations of its own culture of doping.
Mutko also said in his penned article that they are restructuring Russia’s anti-doping agency and that the organization is taking a series of steps to demonstrate how committed they are to ensuring that the sport in their country is clean and fair.
The IAAF is expected to rule on the status of Russia’s track and field program at its next meeting, June 17, in Vienna, Austria, after a task force charged with monitoring Russia’s progress on antidoping reforms presents its findings.
Russian Federation will decide within the next two days on suing The New York Times, which accused the country of implementing a special doping programme at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, sports minister Vitaly Mutko said on Monday.
On Thursday last week, the Russian Ministry of Sport acknowledged in a statement that doping problems existed among its athletes while expressing “shock” over Rodchenkov’s disclosures. While often emphatically dismissing all allegations as a Western conspiracy meant to smear Russian Federation, officials have sometimes struck a more conciliatory tone, hoping to win the favor of track and field officials who might control their ability to compete in the Rio Games. A report in The New York Times based on information from the former head of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory claimed that dozens of athletes including 15 medalists were involved. The IAAF is yet to determine whether or not the track and field athletes will be able to join the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, Business Insider reported.
That’s because WADA doesn’t have the power to enforce a ban on Kenya’s athletes, but the IAAF does, and it did with Russian Federation after its anti-doping program was declared non-compliant following allegations of corruption and doping cover-ups a year ago. “We’ll see”, the sports minister said.
Other sports federations might also conduct investigations, but it seems unlikely that any of them will move swiftly enough to affect the Rio Games, which begin August 5.
This comes against a backdrop of fears that Kenya would be barred after failing to meet standards and deadlines set by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) to adopt legislation controlling the growing menace banned substances that enhance performance.
Advertisement
“The Noc-k as an affiliate of the International Olympic Committee will make a presentation on the whole issue as we have been a party to the Anti-doping Process in Kenya, including formulation and validation of Anti-doping Draft Bill, Anti-doping Policy and Anti-doping rules and regulations”.
