Russia escapes blanket Olympic ban for doping
RUSSIA will be allowed to compete in the Rio Olympic Games despite statesponsored doping, it emerged yesterday.
The International Olympics Committee (IOC) made the shock announcement in the face of demands by the World AntiDoping Agency (WADA) for a blanket ban.
Individual sports federations will instead decide whether to let Russia take part – or follow the example of the International Association of Athletics Federations which banned the country’s track and field stars from the Games, which start on August 5.
The IOC had been under huge pressure to throw Russia out, after a second WADAfunded probe by Canadian legal expert Richard McLaren found it operated a doping programme between 2011 and 2015.
No Russian athlete found guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs in the past would be allowed to take part in the Games, the IOC insisted.
A committee spokesman said: “Entry will be accepted by the IOC only if an athlete is able to provide evidence to the full satisfaction of his or her international federation.”
Every competitor’s doping record will be taken into account, with federations asked to analyse “reliable, adequate international tests” – not those carried out in Russia.
Anyone implicated in the McLaren report should be banned. The international federations should apply their own rules when taking sanctions against Russian national federations, the IOC said.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said yesterday he was grateful to the IOC for not imposing a blanket ban, and hoped most international federations would support Russian athletes hoping to compete.
Professor McLaren said he believed Russia was now tackling drug misuse, adding “it is a very difficult thing to do when you have such a widespread system and it will take some time.”
Sporting federations now have under a fortnight to decide to ban Russians or not.
The news comes after the International Paralympic Committee opened suspension proceedings against the country. Russian athletes with disabilities will be banned from the Paralympics unless the Russian authorities can argue otherwise.