International Olympic Committee delays decision on Russian ban

The IOC has already banned Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko and all other ministry officials from the Rio Games, and withdrawn backing for global events in Russia over the doping programme revealed by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren this week.

McLaren, a Canadian law professor who was asked by the World Anti-Doping Agency to investigate allegations of state-directed cheating in Russian Federation, uncovered evidence that hundreds of positive drugs tests had been covered between 2011-15. “Athletes can be confident that anti-doping sample analysis has been robust throughout the laboratory’s suspension; and, that it will also be during the Games”.

Natalia Zhelanova, the chief adviser on matters of anti-doping to Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko while further investigations are being done on the findings of the WADA report that unveiled institutionalized, government-sponsored doping in Russia.

The IOC has said it will decide within a week whether to take the advice of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and implement a blanket ban on Russian Federation after an investigation discovered evidence of state-sponsored doping.

The chief Anti-Doping Adviser to the head of the Russian Sports Ministry has been suspended after the release of the WADA McLaren report, she Tweeted out on Tuesday. “The IOC will have our support in acting decisively and unequivocally showing that clean sport is at the heart of Olympic values”. At this time only the Russian Track and Field team is banned from participating in the Olympic Games in Rio. The IOC has ordered the immediate re-testing of all Russian athletes who took part.

The team’s line-up includes the 68 track and field athletes, whose fate hinges on the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, which is set to rule on Thursday on whether the IAAF had grounds to impose a blanket ban on Russia’s athletics federation. On the other is the Russian Olympic Committee, which insists that those athletes who have never failed a test should be allowed to compete. But he said no one can say that all Russian athletes are cheats.

The IOC will be watching the verdict closely.

If Cas does uphold the ban, most observers expect it will increase the pressure on the International Olympic Committee to consider a broader ban on all Russians at the Olympics.

I do get the impression reading between the lines, however, that the International Olympic Committee is for some reason very reluctant to think about a total exclusion of the Russians. But Pound, who was also a former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, believes the International Olympic Committee will not budge. “But we’ve got institutionalised, government-organised cheating on a wide scale across a whole range of sports in a country”.

“The issue will be finally resolved by the end of this week, probably on Sunday”, Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov said Wednesday at a meeting of the ROC.