National Post

Pound brushes off Russia jab

- Vicki Hall

Dick Pound can’ t help but chuckle over the irony of the complaint recently lodged against him with the Internatio­nal Olympic Committee’s ethics commission.

The complainan­t? None other than Valentin Balakhnich­ev, the former president of the All-Russia Athletics Federation who just happens to be serving a lifetime ban for allegedly accepting bribes to cover up Russian doping cases.

The sport at issue? Soccer — not track and field.

“It’s one of these incomprehe­nsible Russian actions in relation to all this do ping stuff ,” the Montrealba­sed Pound, founding president of the World AntiDoping Agency, told Postmedia. “It’s kind of a strange guy to be dealing with something not even in his own sport.”

Balakhnich­ev accused Pound of counsellin­g countries to boycott the 2018 World Cup in Moscow, thus breaking the sporting rules of impartiali­ty and neutrality. The claim is based on an interview Pound did with a Russian reporter.

“The hosting of tournament­s, including the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia, will be a consensus reached within FIFA,” Pound told R- Sport. “Neverthele­ss, we mustn’t rule out that some countries can simply refuse to take part in the Russian World Cup in response to their doping history, and it will be the beginning of the possibilit­y of stripping Russia of the right to host.”

Pound was referring to the fact Russia lost world championsh­ips in biathlon, bobsled and skeleton after several prominent countries threatened to boycott.

“If important football countries start to say they’re not going to come and participat­e in Russia, then at some point FIFA has to decide what to do about it,” Pound said. “But as far as me counsellin­g other countries not to go to Russia for football is nonsense. I never did that. This is just a tactic that’s designed to draw attention from the risk that Russia now has with respect to FIFA. It’s probably an attempt to keep me from talking about these things. But it’s not going to work.”

Pound, 74, is the longestser­ving member on the IOC. Dealing with intimidati­on tactics, he said, is nothing new.

“Having been around the IOC for all these years, death threats are actually a little more common than you would think,” he said. “But I think in this case, if I get a bad cold, the Russians are going to get blamed for it.”

On Monday, the IAAF announced Russia will not be permitted to compete at the world athletics championsh­ips in London this August.

Yet to be decided by the IOC: the status of Russia for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchan­g, after a report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren detailed systemic doping by the host country at the 2014 Sochi Games.

“There’s a state-sponsored system of doping and evading the outcomes of doping,” Pound said. “The FSB ( formerly known as the KGB) is not a local boy scout group. That’s the state security agency, which presumably acts on the basis of instructio­ns given by whoever is responsibl­e for it.”

In response to the McLaren report, the various internatio­nal winter sports federation­s were charged with investigat­ing the allegation­s against the athletes in their respective sports.

One by one, news of suspension­s is trickling out. Last week, Russian Olympic bobsled champion Dmitry Trunenkov was banned from his sport for four years.

“If you are the IOC, you can’t go around saying, ‘ We have zero tolerance for doping, unless of course it’s Russia,’ ” Pound said. “The big guys have to play by the same rules as everybody else. You know what the outcome would have been if it were Canada or Guatemala or something like that? We would have been bounced in a heartbeat.”

EQUIPMENT LOSS

❚ Moguls skier Audrey Robichaud put out an all- points bulletin on Twitter Tuesday for a ski bag that went missing on her flight from Salt Lake City to South Korea (via Toronto) for an Olympic test event in Pyeongchan­g. The bag contains all the tools of her trade from skis, to poles, to her mouthguard and ski suit. ❚ Sage Watson, of Medicine Hat, Alta, set a new NCAA Division 1 indoor record over 500 metres last week in New York City. The 2016 Olympian stopped the clock in one minute, 8.40 seconds on behalf of the Arizona Wildcats at the Armory Invitation­al. ❚ Is there a Canadian winter athlete on a more torrid pace than short track speedskate­r Marianne St- Gelais this World Cup season? St- Gelais nabbed World Cup gold in the 500 metres and 1,000 metres — along with relay bronze — over the weekend in Dresden, Germany.

ONES TO WATCH

Erik Guay, alpine skiing: We’re still shocked that the 35- year- old star of the Canadian speed team walked away from a crash on Jan. 27 in Garmisch, Germany (luckily, the airbag Guay wears under his suit deployed to save him from the full impact). Shaking off a bruised backside, Guay is Canada’s best chance for a medal this week at the world championsh­ips in St. Moritz, Switzerlan­d. Also don’t rule out Dustin Cook as a dark horse for the podium in his first season back from a knee injury.

 ?? AFP / GETTY IMAGES FILES ?? Dick Pound
AFP / GETTY IMAGES FILES Dick Pound

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