Hundreds of Russian athletes OK to compete

Anti-doping officials argue punishment not enough to deter future cheating

The Russian Olympic team has been barred from competing in the coming Winter Games because of a doping scheme that corrupted several Olympics and many other major international events. But when the Games begin next month in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Russia’s representation could be as strong as ever.

When they barred Russia last month, Olympic officials left a side door open for athletes who could prove they were clean. On Friday, in a statement about the results of that opaque, month long review process that scrutinized aspiring Russian Olympians, the International Olympic Committee said it had provisionally cleared nearly 400 Russian athletes to compete at the 2018 Winter Games.

The IOC invited Russia’s suspended Olympic committee to propose which athletes of that group would occupy Russia’s earned competition slots at the Games. At the last Winter Games, in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, it named 232 athletes to its team.

Olympic officials on Friday declared 111 Russian athletes ineligible and said the approved athletes would be required to fulfil certain additional broad conditions, “such as further pre-Games tests and reanalysis from stored samples.”

Frustrating some global anti-doping officials, the IOC did not publish the names of the approved athletes, their drug-testing histories, or the specific criteria used to assess the group.

“More than 80 per cent of the athletes in this pool did not compete at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014,” the International Olympic Committee said in the statement, referencing the event at which Russia executed an elaborate overnight cheating operation. “This shows that this is a new generation of Russian athletes.”

Paul Melia, Canada’s top anti-doping official, called that statement naive. “In the face of evidence of a staterun doping program going back to at least 2011, to think that overnight there’s a new generation of Russian athletes ready for the Olympics?” he said.

IOC president Thomas Bach has said Russia’s cheating displayed an “unprecedented level of criminality.” Melia said the IOC’s actions were unlikely to deter similar such cheating. “If you wanted to send a strong message that this is absolutely unacceptable, you’re not going to let their athletes come to the next Games,” he said.

The IOC sought to emphasize the wrongdoers it had excluded. None of the approved athletes were among those disciplined by the IOC for doping in Sochi, and none have been suspended for a doping violation in the past. Each athlete’s candidacy was considered anonymously, according to Olympic officials.

Beyond being declared clean by the IOC, Russian athletes will need to have qualified for the Games by the standards of their respective sports. As qualifying events continue before Jan. 28 — the deadline by which athletes must be registered for the Games — the IOC said Friday that it was impossible to estimate the number of Russian competitors.

Still, the generous pool established Friday makes it likely that the number could rival the size of Russia’s delegation in Sochi — or even surpass it.

In Pyeongchang, Russian athletes will technically compete under the Olympic flag, with no Russian emblems identifying them or appearing at the opening ceremony on Feb. 9. Nonetheless, Russian athletes and officials have expressed pride that their athletes will be referred to by the acronym OAR, for Olympic Athlete from Russia.

Anti-doping officials from more than 20 countries have called the level of public detail about the IOC’s evaluation process insufficient, requesting Thursday that Olympic officials publish specific criteria in light of the IOC’s own statement in 2016 that Russian athletes ought to be presumed tainted by their system and required to prove themselves innocent.