Clean athletes deserve better

After a years-long doping scandal that would fit comfortably in the pages of a Cold War spy novel, Russia was largely let back into the sporting fold last September on a promise.

It pledged to give World Anti-Doping Agency officials access to the Moscow laboratory at the heart of the Olympic doping scandal by the end of 2018. But that didn’t happen. Officials were turned away empty-handed.

And yet, to this latest act from a country that ran a statesponsored doping regime for its athletes and thwarted the global drug-testing system as far back as 2011, and was unrepentant about it, WADA is merely “disappointed.” It plans to discuss the matter at a meeting in Montreal later this month.

The International Olympic Committee’s response is even worse. In his New Year’s message, IOC president Thomas Bach said Russia “has served its sanction.”

So, once again, the heart of the Olympic movement has been exposed, not as dedication to fair play, but craven toadying to big powers with even bigger budgets to spend on sport and hosting events.

Travis Tygart, chief executive of the U.S. testing agency, called the situation “a total joke and an embarrassment for WADA and the global anti-doping system.” He’s bang on there. Athlete groups and the outspoken anti-doping agencies , including the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, are quite rightly calling on WADA to declare Russia non-compliant — again.

In fact, it shouldn’t have been let off the hook the first time. But the IOC and WADA blinked first, repeatedly. Despite an independent investigation by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren providing indisputable evidence that Russia’s drugtesting system had been utterly corrupted, the IOC let Russia and most of its athletes compete in the 2016 Rio Summer Games.

Then, with even more evidence in hand, they let nearly 170 Russian athletes, who went on to win 17 medals, compete under the “Olympic Athlete from Russia” banner at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

And this past September, WADA essentially slapped clean athletes the world over in the face by reinstating Russia’s testing agency (allowing its athletes to more easily compete and Russia to host major international sporting events) even though it had not done any of the required work to earn it.

When that deal was done, WADA president Craig Reedie said he could “100 per cent guarantee” that Russia would hold up its end of the bargain. The officials turned away from the Moscow lab last month on the ridiculous pretence that their equipment wasn’t cleared know just how wrong Reedie was to have claimed Russia would do the right thing here.

It’s increasingly clear that Russia hopes to ride out this scandal, much like others involving the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain and meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, without ever admitting its guilt. Or providing access to the lab data that could show the true extent of the state-sanctioned doping scheme.

This saga already dates back to 2015, and given enough time people will become hazy on the details. That will make it easier for the ever-political IOC to fully welcome Russia back into sport’s good graces after their little time-out in the corner.

It’s time the IOC and WADA put more effort into standing up for clean athletes than looking for excuses to let Russia off the hook.

Russia should not be welcomed back to the Olympics until it provides the required data and samples from its lab, and a measure of confidence that it has learned its lesson and will be more compliant in the future.

Athletes train for years for a shot at Olympic glory and they rarely get second chances. Russia has already been given far too many of those.

It’s time the IOC and WADA put more effort into standing up for clean athletes