IAAF upholds bans on Russian athletes for Rio Games

“So if someone wants to hurt Russia, they can find some fault and keep amplifying it and building it up”, says Alexei Tishenko, a famous Russian boxer and twice Olympic champion.

Before the decision, President Vladimir Putin had made one final attempt to convince the world that Russia’s isolation in athletics should end now.

The country’s track federation was indefinitely suspended a year ago after a World Anti-Doping Agency report presented evidence of widespread cheating.

Russian Federation claims to have tried hard in recent months to address the storm of criticism, and the Kremlin has staunchly denied persistent charges that doping is a state-sponsored enterprise. “And there may be some collateral damage”. I think this is a really monumental, historic day in many ways for clean athletes and for clean, fair sport. Since then, six of the 12 finalists – including two Russians and Turkish gold medallist Ash Cakir Alptekin – received doping bans. Will the Russians retaliate in some way, as they often threaten to do when in conflict with the West?

Asked by reporters if Russian Federation is preparing a legal response to the potential ban, Peskov says “we are doing everything we can in order to protect our athletes and will continue to do so”.

Russian athletes who can prove they are not doping have “a crack in the door” that could still see them at the Rio Olympics.

Putin stressed that the IAAF should penalize individual athletes found to be doping, rather than apply a broad ban on entire teams.

As worldwide track officials met in Vienna for a crucial vote on Friday, Russia’s top sports official made one last plea to have the ban on his track team lifted in time for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

John Coates, the Australian IOC member, said on Friday morning that he expected the ban to be upheld.

“This is a hypothetical scenario, but what we can tell you is that the International Olympic Committee would always act on a case-by-case basis”, International Olympic Committee spokesman Emmanuelle Moreau told USA TODAY Sports.

If it happened, it would set a drastic precedent.

“WADA is now anticipating the outcomes of its own independent McLaren Investigation that was formed on18 May, which is examining further allegations of doping in Russian Federation”.

“Allegations have been made about other countries”, Pielke said. “The atmosphere there is far from being cloudless”.

Several Russian Olympic athletes interviewed in recent days insisted they do not use drugs, and that the controls on doping in Russia are as tough as anywhere in the world.

Andersen made clear that the exception for athletes would be narrow and was advised by legal counsel to head off legal challenges that could come to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

WADA documented continuing violations in a report released on Wednesday.

“- “(Competing as a neutral) is not open to everybody, just those athletes who have lived outside the Russian system for enough years to be able to qualify for that”.

Regardless of whether politics were a factor, the ban will hurt Russia’s athletic prowess, says Vadim Khersontsev, a senior trainer for its now-banned track and field team.

Earlier this week, however, WADA published another report claiming that Moscow helped athletes evade doping tests.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman says Russian Federation is committed to eradicating doping and punishing those who are responsible.

– “It gives a measure of hope to clean athletes that there are consequences not only for athletes who dope, but for countries which do not engage seriously in the fight against doping”. “But at a certain point everybody is complicit”, Pound said. He said that would impact any Russian athletes who’ve been subject to reliable testing outside of the Russian system.

“Obviously, athletes understand this”, Stepanov told USA TODAY Sports.

“The deep-seated culture of tolerance, or worse, for doping that led RusAF being suspended in the first appears not to have changed materially to date”, the IAAF said.

It’s the largest country in the world, and its authoritarian president, Vladimir Putin, likes to project influence on the global stage.

Since the United Kingdom -based anti-doping agency took over testing in February, because its Russian counterpart lost its accreditation, athletes were unavailable for screening in 73 of 455 tests conducted through the end of May, it said.

Likewise, Russian lab director Grigory Rodchenkov left Russia and spilled more details last month to The New York Times.

It’s not baseless paranoia. That, on one day at least, they were among the very best in the world.

“I will go to the human rights court”, she said.

“It’s actually even more appalling”, he says.

It’s a strategic move to avoid a ban and emphasize reform. “It is they who must assume the responsibility for their actions”.