The IAAF and the International Olympic Committee have temporarily suspended Russia from competing in world sporting events due to allegations of wide spread doping among Russian athletes.
Advertisement
The Russian minister also expressed his surprise at the fact the worldwide sports community has failed to speak out and defend Russian athletes that didn’t cheat, but may be suspended from participating in all global competitions including the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The worldwide Olympic Committee has supported competitors in the past whose home country may be in transition or subject to sanctions.
He said that both the IOC president, Thomas Bach, and the heads of worldwide federations were pushing for the latter.
“There are discussions about this in sporting circles”, Isinbayeva said of the prospect of Russian track and field athletes competing as independents in Rio.
“The situation resembles kindergarten”, he said. “The IAAF is writing to ARAF today to convene disciplinary proceedings against the athlete”.
IAAF president Lord Coe has admitted he should have seen the warning signs before athletics became engulfed in a doping crisis.
Bach and the head of the Russian Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov, reached agreement on a roadmap for Russia to follow to become compliant with rules of the IAAF and WADA.
Zelichenok also said Russian Federation is focused on finding “a rational compromise” to have its IAAF ban lifted but could appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if the IAAF “tells us clearly that it doesn’t accept any of our arguments” in comments to the Tass agency. The vote follows the release of a World Anti-Doping Agency-funded report on November 11 that announced a state-sponsored doping program. “Secondly, there will be a complete renewal and reform of the national athletics federation, and thirdly, that all the doped athletes will be punished and the clean athletes will be protected”.
Meanwhile, a new committee would work closely with the IAAF to address the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) allegations that led to the ban, he said.
Advertisement
Coe was elected president of athletics’ world governing body in August after spending eight years as deputy to Lamine Diack, who is being investigated by French police on suspicion of having taken more than 1million euros in payments to cover up positive drugs tests.
