Ban the cheats but be fair to the rest

I REFER to the report “Grounded” ( The Star, July 22).

It is utterly unfair of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to reject the 67 Russian athletes’ appeal to compete in the Rio Olympics over the doping ban on them by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

The 67 athletes, including twotime pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva, have vehemently and categorically denied their involvement in doping even though the independent World Athletics Doping Agency (Wada) said it has solid evidence of state-run doping in Russia.

It will be a sad day for athletes from all over the world gathered at Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics as they will be deprived of the chance to compete against their fellow clean Russian athletes.

Is a blanket ban for the 67 athletes fair if athletes from other countries clearly have their own doping issues but just haven’t been singled out like the Russians?

I firmly believe not all the apples in the basket are rotten unless Wada can prove beyond any doubt that every Russian athlete is guilty of doping.

Can the IAAF guarantee that all the world athletes assembled at Rio are absolutely free of drugs?

This is unprecedented as, to my knowledge, never before has a nation’s entire Olympic athletics delegation, or for that matter any other sports team, been banned for doping. But I stand to be corrected.

It appears that this ban may extend to the entire Russian national Olympic team.

The “zero tolerance” drug policy of the IAAF is commendable but it should hit at the real cheats, not the innocent ones who have diligently, painstakingly and rigorously trained for years for the forthcoming Olympics.

In all fairness and based on the principle of human rights, every athlete should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, that is everyone should be tested overseas and, if found guilty, be banned.

The principle of collective punishment should not apply for the 67 athletes.

As an athlete myself, I sincerely feel the disappointment, disillusionment and disenchantment of the 67 who will not get the golden opportunity to showcase their talents at the Rio Olympics.

Generally, I would say doping is quite rampant in every sport in every country. Unfortunately, Russia’s doping programmes came to light after some whistleblowers revealed their activities to the media, triggering independent Wada’s investigation.

There’s no telling how other nations might fare if they underwent the same intensive scrutiny.

Therefore, I wish the IAAF, CAS and the International Olympic Committee would punish the guilty individual athletes and be fair and just to the clean athletes.