Coe in the spotlight as world athletics ponders Russian Federation ban

Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said the IAAF’s suspension of Russian Federation was the “only outcome acceptable to clean athletes”.

The scandal erupted after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published a report saying that Russian athletes were involved in systematic state sponsored doping.

Coe described Lamine Diack, his predecessor as IAAF president, as his “spiritual leader”, only for the 82-year-old Senegalese to be arrested by French police over claims he took 1 million euros ($1.1 million) in bribes to cover up positive drug tests.

The United States’ representative on the IAAF council called suspending the Russian track team “the only proper course of action”.

“It is our duty to protect the clean athletes”, the Ukrainian pole vault great said, drawing a parallel with his own experience of being prevented from competing at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles because of a Soviet boycott.

The Rio Olympics might be over for Russia’s track and field athletes long before the games even begin.

The report recommended that the medals won in the London 2012 Olympic Games and other global competitions be stripped from allegedly cheating Russian athletes, which could mean athletes who missed out might be awarded medals.

Mutko offered “broad cooperation” from Russia’s anti-doping agency on Friday morning, going as far as suggesting deep departmental reform.

Since the WADA report was released on Monday, Coe has been under enormous pressure to take strong action.

It told Cycling Weekly, “WADA’s decision to provisionally suspend the Moscow laboratory will have a marginal impact on UCI’s anti-doping activities since the CADF, the independent body mandated by the UCI to plan and carry out anti-doping in cycling, had very limited use of Moscow’s facilities for the screening of samples”.

The committee’s findings will go to the WADA foundation board, which will vote on them at its meeting Wednesday in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The IAAF council was to meet by teleconference, chaired by Coe in London.

Russian Federation has been provisionally suspended from all worldwide athletics competitions by the IAAF.

“This has been a shameful wake up call and we are clear that cheating at any level will not be tolerated”, IAAF President Sebastian Coe said in a statement on the organization’s Web site.

A few athletes say they are disappointed by the news, but not surprised. Among the report’s recommendations was a suspension of the country’s track program for the Rio Olympics unless it demonstrated a significant improvement to its anti-doping program. Mutko has accused the IAAF of concealing more than 150 doping cases, mostly from countries other than Russian Federation. But that rhetoric softened in recent days, with President Vladimir Putin vowing to conduct a thorough internal investigation and comply with outside ones.

DENVER (AP) – A World Anti-Doping Agency committee found Russia’s anti-doping operation non-compliant with its code Friday and also concluded that the track team might not be the only Russian squad with issues.