Dick Pound, chairman of the commission behind the report, warned that Russian athletes were likely to miss the Rio Olympics in 2016 unless the country could demonstrate it was cleaning up its act.
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“The Olympic Games in London were, in a sense, sabotaged by the admission of athletes who should have not been competing”, the report said.
The global Olympic Committee vowed to do “whatever it takes to protect the clean athletes and rebuild trust in our sport”, in a statement.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, whose ministry is implicated in the report, even threatened to withdraw all government financial support for anti-doping work in protest at the report’s accusations.
Russian Federation dismissed accusations of a systemic culture of state-sponsored doping among its sports programs and calls the country be banned from worldwide sport.
“Until a few evidence is presented…it is hard to accept these accusations, they are quite groundless”, Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told reporters. I have spoken to Andrea and she is in a state of shock right now trying to come to terms with what has happened, we all are.
A few believe the scandal could have bigger ramifications than the graft affair at Federation Internationale de Football Association, where president Sepp Blatter has been suspended, 14 officials and marketing executives have been indicted, and Switzerland is investigating the awarding of two World Cups: to Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
And on Tuesday, WADA said it has suspended the Moscow-based laboratory that is supposed to analyze the urine and blood samples of Russia’s athletes.
The 59-year-old Coe, who has taken a few flak over the IAAF’s role in the scandal, will also be quizzed about continuing as a Nike brand ambassador. The widespread corruption, Pound added, “was worse than we thought”.
IAAF President Sebastian Coe said he would give Russian Federation until Friday to respond to the scathing report.
Russian Federation should be banned from participation in the summer and winter Olympics for a full decade to drive home the point to the world, and to the people of Russian Federation, that Putin’s offenses will not be allowed to corrupt and pollute the world of sports.
“The agency takes the highest number of sanctions against transgressors in the world”.
In the interim, samples analysed by the Moscow Anti-doping Centere shall be transported securely, promptly and with a demonstrable chain of custody to another Wada-accredited laboratory. One elite world marathon runner paid her coach and the medical director of ARAF sums of money every year, part of which was “to protect her from receiving a positive drug result from her doping activities”, the report says. In East Germany, for instance, the Stasi secret police were closely involved in doping programmes.
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The IAAF is expected to decide on a World Anti-Doping Agency commission recommendation to block Russian participation in track and field events, a move that would jeopardize their chances of competing at next year’s Olympics.
