Olympics: Russian track ban is upheld; IOC could go further

IOC will consider ban on country’s entire Olympic contingent

LONDON — Now that Russian track and field athletes have failed in their effort to have their Olympic ban overturned, it’s up to the International Olympic Committee to decide whether to kick the entire Russian team out of the games that begin in Rio de Janeiro in 15 days.

In another blow to the image of the sports superpower, the highest court in sports on Thursday dismissed an appeal by 68 Russian track athletes of the ban imposed by the IAAF after allegations of systematic and state-sponsored doping.

Sports officials in Mos- cow condemned the ruling as “political,” and said some athletes might take their case to civil courts. Twotime Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva said the Rio Games will be devalued, with only “pseudo-gold medals” available.

In its ruling, the Court of Arbitration for Sport found that track and field’s world governing body, the IAAF, had properly applied its own rules in keeping the Russians out of the games that begin Aug. 5.

The three-man panel ruled that the Russian Olympic Committee “is not entitled to nominate Russian track and field athletes to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games considering that they are not eligible to participate under the IAAF competition rules.”

The Russians had argued against a collective ban, saying it punishes those athletes who have not been accused of wrongdoing.

While the ruling clears the way for other individual sports federations to apply similar bans on Russians, it also increases pressure on the IOC to take the unprecedented step of excluding the whole Russian team. The IOC has never banned an entire country from the games for doping.

The World Anti-Doping Agency, along with many national anti-doping bodies and athletes groups, have called on the IOC to impose a total ban on Russia after fresh allegations of state-orchestrated cheating across dozens of Olympic sports.

Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, who was commissioned by WADA, issued a scathing report Monday that accused Russia’s Sports Ministry of orchestrating a doping system that affected 28 summer and winter Olympic sports. Officers of Russia’s intel- ligence service, the FSB, were also involved in the cheating, which included swapping of doping samples at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, McLaren found.

On Tuesday, the IOC executive board said it would “explore the legal options” for a possible total ban on Russia but would wait until after the CAS ruling before making a final decision.

The IOC executive board is scheduled to hold another emergency meeting Sunday via teleconference to consider the issue. In a statement Thursday, the IOC said it “takes note” of the CAS ruling upholding the track and field ban.

“We will now have to study and analyze the full decision,” the IOC said. “The IOC decision on the participation of the Russian athletes will be taken in the coming days.”

Former WADA president Dick Pound, an IOC member from Canada, accused the IOC of dithering and said the committee does not show the appetite to apply a total ban.

“You’ve got the power to simply withdraw the invitation and say, ‘Sorry, your country has not demonstrated any understanding or respect of rules for clean competition. You’re not welcome,’ ” Pound said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press.

Pound, who authored a WADA report last year that detailed cheating in Russia and led to the IAAF ban, criticized the IOC for suggesting that individual federations could decide whether to exclude Russian athletes in their own sports, rather than imposing a complete ban itself.

“Why is the IOC not acting in the face of incontrovertible evidence of government interference?” he said. “What else do you need?”