Russia accepts IOC plan to retest Olympic doping samples

“I want to compete in a World Championships that’s drug free and safe for all”, USA women’s bobsled pilot Elana Meyers Taylor said on Twitter. But neither wants to run the risk of doing so in Russian Federation, where those races, for now, are scheduled. Two, someone was messing with the samples.

However, he confirmed that most U.S. athletes due to take part in Sochi had voiced concerns about competing in Russian Federation.

That news is not exactly new, of course.

Latvia said that they want the February 13-26 International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Championships to be switched from the Black Sea venue in Russia which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The IPC went one step further than the International Olympic Committee in August when it issued a blanket ban on Russian athletes competing at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) all but admitted that there is probably systematic doping happening across the board.

Pressure is mounting on authorities to strip the Russian city of the March event after a report claimed more than 1,000 Russians benefited from state-sponsored doping between 2011 and 2015.

The extended investigation by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren backed up his earlier findings of alleged state-sponsored cheating, adding a number of fresh accusations. “We believe that the participants in this were individuals, who were pursuing their own goals.”.

Many athletes are upset about the overwhelming evidence concerning Russia’s doping program.

Russians cheated like insane in London, with 15 medal winners part of the deception.

The Latvian bobsleigh team has yet to decide whether or not to take part in Sochi.

Friday’s report provided extensive evidence to support the original July report, which said Moscow had concealed hundreds of positive doping tests ahead of the Sochi Winter Games in 2014. Besides, an worldwide ban on the country’s track and field athletes remains in force, pending an overhauling of its anti-doping system. They strike right at the heart of the integrity and ethics of sport. The Russian National Team narrowly escaped being banned from the entire competition. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency has been given independent financing and Moscow says it is now fully transparent. While a blanket ban on Pyeongchang would seem unlikely, the International Olympic Committee has indicated it will impose stiff sanctions.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said anyone involved in the sophisticated manipulation system should be banned from the Olympics for life.

McLaren spent months combing through emails, documents, scientific, and forensic evidence from Russian officials and athletes, and published his findings in a tirelessly thorough account. The punishment should hit the highest level of Russian government.

In the 2012 Summer Olympics in London alone, McLaren found, 15 medalists violated doping rules; ten have since been stripped of their medals. “It’s just a vocabulary game”.

As well as at the London Games, the investigation found positive tests were covered up at Sochi 2014 and the 2013 World Athletics Championships.

Toni Minichiello, the coach of the heptathlon Olympic champion, Jessica Ennis-Hill, said: “The IAAF need to make some serious statements”.

Lastly, there needs to be an Olympic housecleaning.

The United States, Britain and Germany all swiftly condemned Russian Federation, while the International Paralympic Committee, which banned Russian Federation completely from the Rio Paralympics in September, called the McLaren findings “astonishing”.