IOC got it right on Russia: Snell

New Zealand’s greatest ever Olympian has not lost hope for the Games movement at a time when doping and political controversies threaten to envelop the global quadrennial sporting jamboree in a dark shroud.

Triple Olympic gold medalwinning athlete Sir Peter Snell, whose feats at the 1960 and ‘64 Games still rate among this country’s most celebrated achievements, has voiced his support for the way individual sports and the Olympic movement have gone about dealing with Russia and its alleged state-sponsored doping programmes.

Snell, in an interview with the Sunday Star-Times from his home in Dallas, Texas, said the International Olympic Committee got it right when it resisted widespread calls to ban the Russians en masse from the Rio Games.

The 77-year-old Kiwi sporting legend supported the decision to ban the Russian athletics team but felt IOC president Thomas Bach played the right hand when he decided not to banish the entire Russian contingent on the back of damaging allegations unearthed in the McLaren report.

Asked if he thought the IOC missed a chance to send a clear message around drug-cheating, Snell provided a surprisingly emphatic response.

‘‘Do you mean disqualify the whole team? No, no, no, that would be totally unfair in my opinion,’’ Snell said. ‘‘There are some sports that don’t benefit from [doping] and they’re not doing it. I don’t think they should suffer for what the track and field people are doing.

‘‘It’s fair what they’ve done. If you’re a skill sport, maybe like gymnastics, I don’t think you should be disqualified for what others have done.

‘‘I hate that blanket thing where you suffer for other people’s sins just because you happen to be from the same country. For those who are clean, to have to pay for the sins of team-mates, I don’t think that’s right.’’

But Snell had no problems with sports like his own, track and field, taking the response they did and banning the Russians from the Games.

‘‘I’m sort of glad they’ve been nailed. It’s obviously going on and it was very brave of the authorities to actually take the action they did. It’s such a formidable country, Russia, but it looks as though they’ve taken it lying down.

‘‘The Russians have been doing this for a long time, in my opinion.’’

Snell said he would be watching from his lounge in Dallas, and he expected the event to shake off the issues that have plagued it in the buildup.

‘‘It’s always an outstanding show, the Olympics, and even though there are problems in Rio I think they may be able to get over it.

‘‘As long as too many people don’t get mugged and robbed, but I think they’ve got that covered as well.’’

Snell was also rapt that his own specialist event, the 1500m, would have three Kiwis in it in Rio for the first time in Olympic history.

‘‘Nick Willis has done extraordinarily well and those other two guys, Julian Matthews and Hamish Carson, have run faster than I ever did over 1500.

‘‘What’s struck me is they’re now older than I was when I finished. It’s possible these days to go on, and that wasn’t the case in New Zealand back in my day. You had to get on with life and earning a living.’’

A then 21-year-old Snell memorably won Olympic gold in the 800m in Rome in 1960 in the first part of what became known as the ‘Golden Hour’, with Murray Halberg coming out soon after to do likewise with a gritty frontrunning display in the 5000m. And in the 1964 Games in Tokyo the strapping Kiwi completed the 800-1500m double for just the second time in history.