Russia axed from Games
Russian athletes will be forced to compete as neutrals at February’s Winter Olympics after the country’s Olympic committee was banned over the biggest drugs scandal in history.
The International Olympic Committee finally took meaningful action yesterday against what it acknowledged had been ‘‘systematic’’ cheating by the nation at London 2012 and Sochi 2014, outlawing its flag, uniform and anthem from the Games in Pyeongchang 2018.
More than a year after refusing to throw Russia out of Rio 2016 following the publication of a World Anti-do ping Agency commissioned report that found Russia guilty of a cover-up that included an Fsb-assisted sample swapping scheme, the IOC announced the findings of its own independent investigation into the scandal.
The report by former Swiss president Samuel Schmid ruled that the Russian Ministry of Sport and Russian Olympic Committee bore ultimate responsibility for what IOC president Thomas Bach branded ‘‘an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport’’, one which Wada investigator Prof Richard Mclaren last year said involved 1000 athletes.
Russian deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko, sports minister at the time of the scandal, was also handed a lifetime Olympic ban, which could lead to calls for him to be replaced as head of the country’s World Cup organising committee.
However, the report found insufficient evidence that he had personally orchestrated the scheme or had known of it, despite the publication last week of the diaries of the former director of the Moscow laboratory which allege meetings and conversations with Mutko about it.
Schmid stopped short of describing what went on as ‘‘state-sponsored’’ - a conclusion reached by previous investigations - while he said there was ‘‘no evidence’’ to implicate Russian President Vladimir Putin, who claimed last month that accusations against his country had been invented as revenge for its perceived interference in Donald Trump’s election as US president.
Russia, which has repeatedly denied state-sponsored doping, had threatened to boycott February’s Games if the IOC forced its athletes to compete as neutrals. A decision on that is expected this week.
The New Zealand Olympic Committe backed the sanctions with president Mike Stanley saying they would act as a deterrent.
‘‘This is a very strong set of sanctions against Russia which really undertook an unprecedented attack against the Olympic movement in their systematic doping efforts,’’ Stanley told Radio Sport. ‘‘We believe these sanctions are completely appropriate.’’