IOC poised to rule on Russia’s status for Rio
Calls for ban put pressure on panel today
LONDON — As the clock ticks down to the opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, international Olympic leaders are facing a seminal moment.
With the credibility of the fight against doping on the line and the image of the Olympics at stake, the IOC will hold a crucial meeting today to consider whether to ban Russia entirely from the Rio Games because of systematic, state-sponsored cheating.
The International Olympic Committee could leave it to individual sports federations to decide caseby-case whether to allow Russian athletes in their events.
The doping crisis is one of the Olympic movement’s biggest challenges since the boycott era of the 1980s, and how it plays out could define Thomas Bach’s IOC presidency.
The IOC’s ruling 15-member executive board will meet via teleconference to weigh the unprecedented step of excluding Russia as a whole from the games. Bach and others have spoken of a need to balance “individual justice” versus “collective punishment.”
Time is of the essence, with the games set to open in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5.
Russia’s track and field athletes have already been banned by the IAAF, the sport’s governing body, following allegations of state-directed doping — a decision that was upheld Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Calls for a complete ban on Russia have intensified since Monday when Richard McLaren, a Canadian lawyer commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, issued a report accusing Russia’s sports ministry of overseeing a vast doping program of its Olympic athletes.
McLaren’s investigation, based heavily on evidence from former Moscow doping lab director Grigory Rodchenkov, affirmed allegations of manipulation of Russian urine samples at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi but also found that state-backed doping had involved 28 summer and winter sports from 2011 to 2015.
Bach said the findings showed a “shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games” and declared the IOC “will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated.”
Russia also faces a possible ban from the Paralympic Games. Citing evidence in McLaren’s report of doping among Russian Paralympic athletes, the International Paralympic Committee said Friday it will decide next month whether to exclude the country from the Sept. 7-18 event in Rio.
The decision for the IOC is loaded with geopolitical ramifications.
Never has a country been kicked out of the Olympics for doping violations. And Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a sports powerhouse, a huge country seeking to reaffirm its status on the world stage, and a major player in the Olympic movement. Many international Olympic officials and federation leaders have close ties to Russia, which has portrayed the exclusion of its track athletes and calls for a complete ban as part of a political, Western-led campaign.
Putin, citing the U.S. and Soviet-led boycotts of the 1980 and 1984 Games, said the Olympics “could once again find itself on the brink of a division.”
DEVELOPMENTS
U.S. sending record number of women: The United States is sending 292 women to the Rio Olympics — the most women who have ever competed at an Olympics for a single country.
The U.S. Olympic Committee officially announced its 555-person team Saturday. Three members of the team are making their sixth Olympics: equestrian Phillip Dutton and shooters Emil Milev and Kim Rhode. Seven will be in their fifth Olympics, including Michael Phelps, Bernard Lagat, Kerri Walsh Jennings and Venus Williams.
At the London Games four years ago, the U.S. sent 269 women and 261 men.
Dutton is the oldest U.S. Olympian at 52. There are four 16-year-olds: Kanak Jha (tennis), Laurie Hernandez (gymnastics), Sydney McLaughlin (track) and Laura Zeng (rhythmic gymnastics).
Brazil police arrest another: Authorities have arrested another man suspected of belonging to a group that allegedly discussed carrying out attacks during the Olympics, Brazilian police said.
No further details were provided.
Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes on Thursday announced the arrest of 10 Brazilians who police said had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and discussed on social media the possibility of staging attacks during next month’s Games.