BY OVERTURNING RUSSIAN BAN, THE CHEATERS WIN
But anti-doping agency hopes new code will put focus on federations, not athletes
Over the course of some two decades on the front lines against doping, Beckie Scott says she has long since lost the ability to be either shocked or surprised.
Saddened? Yes. Angered? Absolutely. But, when you’ve seen it as an athlete, as a member of the IOC and as the chairperson of the WADA Athlete Committee, you understand the scope of this fight and the powerful forces in play.
“One of the reasons I’m still here is it’s never boring,” the Olympic gold medallist said from her home in Canmore, Alta., with a laugh before adding, “I care. I still care.”
But this latest turn of events is different. This time it touched a nerve in Scott and every member of the anti-doping community. It should also touch a nerve in anyone with a conscience.
On Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned the lifetime ban of 28 Russian athletes, opening the possibility for those athletes to compete in the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea. That decision followed an earlier ruling by the IOC that allows Russian athletes to take part in Pyeongchang under the designation “Olympic Athletes from Russia.”
Together, the two rulings have effectively neutered the sanctions levied against Russia for conducting a comprehensive, statewide doping program in and around the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. It also delivered a punch to the gut of the Olympic movement in general and antidoping specifically.
Before the CAS decision, 169 Russian athletes were expected to compete in Pyeongchang. Now, the 28 athletes who had their bans lifted will attempt to take part in South Korea. The decision also reinstated nine of the 13 medals won in Sochi by Russian athletes who had been disqualified by the IOC.
In other words, the cheaters won.
“My reaction?” Scott said. “Total dismay and really disheartened. It’s very disappointing for clean sports and athletes.
“I never questioned (the bans) wouldn’t be upheld. It never occurred to me they’d be overturned. It’s cheating the whole concept of sport. The fact is there is no impactful or meaningful consequence that’s come out of this level of cheating.”
That’s one way to put it. Here’s another:
“It is a desperate and dark day for sport with cheats and thieves allowed to triumph,” said IOC member Adam Pengilly, a former British skeleton athlete. “The silent and clean majority are being made to suffer through having to attain a ridiculous burden of proof and by the craven and spineless decisions of those who lead.”
Yes, another moment of triumph for Olympism.
Despite the assertions of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian authority, the question at the heart of this matter isn’t whether Russians cheated. The McLaren Report, commissioned by WADA and chaired by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, and the later Schmid and Oswald reports, both commissioned by the IOC, concluded that Russia had conducted a massive doping and coverup program.
The scope and the brazenness of that program is hard to comprehend. Samples were tampered with or disappeared. Positive test results were changed to negative. Most of it was done out of the Moscow laboratory under the direction of the Russian AntiDoping Agency (RUSADA).
Again, this isn’t “he said, she said.” This is the conclusion drawn by three separate investigations.
On Thursday, however, CAS ruled there was “insufficient evidence” to uphold the lifetime bans and disqualify the medals won by Russian athletes in Sochi.
This, at least, made the Russian authorities happy. Others, not so much.
“There is irrefutable proof that a member state of the Olympic movement has engaged in cheating,” said Scott. “It required a level of response we haven’t seen.”
Scott was introduced to that “irrefutable proof ” in the summer of 2016 when she and other key members of the anti-doping movement were briefed on the revelations of Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow laboratory and the chief whistleblower in the case.
The scene is captured in Icarus, the powerful documentary about Rodchenkov, and the reaction from Scott and her colleagues ranges from dismay to horror.
“I think we had a sense of what we were going to see, but when the scale of it was presented it was hard to believe,” she said. “Russian doping has long been an open secret. But even for me, it was hard to digest.”
Still, the battle continues. Scott says a new standard of compliance will be adopted by WADA in April that will change the game. The new protocol takes the focus away from individual athletes and targets the signatories of WADA’s code: international federations, national anti-doping bodies, organizers of major events.
“It’s something the athletes were pushing for,” said Scott. “This will bring all stakeholders to account. It will bring the ability for WADA to impose penalties and sanctions.”
And that’s great. But can it bring real change? Can it overturn the culture of doping as easily as CAS overturned the IOC’s bans? Can it restore confidence in the integrity of competition, in the integrity of the Olympic movement?
That’s the real test of the new regulations and it’s kind of important.
“I see the value of clean, fair sport,” said Scott. “But we’re on the precipice of losing that. When that’s gone, it’s a huge loss.
“I think it’s important young athletes can dream about winning an Olympic medal without cheating.”
And she still thinks that’s worth preserving.