USA TODAY International Edition
IMMEDIATE RUSSIA BAN URGED
Anti- doping leaders petition IOC boss
Pressure intensified Wednesday on the International Olympic Committee in the midst of one of the largest sports doping scandals ever when anti- doping leaders from 14 nations called upon IOC President Thomas Bach to ban Russia’s Olympic committee and its athletes from the upcoming Rio Games.
In a letter obtained by USA TODAY Sports, the anti- doping officials asked Bach “to take prompt action ... ( to) provisionally deny entry to all Russian ath- letes,” but also offered a significant opportunity to those Russian athletes who have been subjected to thorough, untainted drug testing outside of Russia to meet a “uniform set of criteria” that could allow them to compete in Rio under a neutral flag.
This new effort to persuade
Bach to kick Russia out of Rio is being led by a group of nine European nations, including Germany, Bach’s homeland. The other European nations are Austria, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Also signing the letter were representatives of the USA, Canada, Egypt, Japan and New Zealand.
While praising the IOC executive board’s strong statement to “take the toughest sanctions available” in response to the independent World Anti- Doping Agency report issued by Canadi- an attorney Richard McLaren on Monday, the letter notes that the IOC has in fact done nothing of the sort since.
The IOC instead asked the international federations of all Summer Olympic sports to begin to determine if their Russian athletes might be eligible for Rio. It also has said it will seek guidance from the highly anticipated ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport on the status of 68 Russian track and field athletes who are appealing their Rio banishment from the international track and field federation due to the Russian federation’s massive doping violations.
That wasn’t enough for the signers of the letter:
“We note that the IOC has full power and authority to act now in this matter and that its legal basis for acting is separate and distinct from that possessed by the ( international track and field federation).”
The letter offered specific instructions to the IOC on how to handle individual Russian athletes in the little more than two weeks left before the Aug. 5 opening ceremony in Rio.
The letter states that the IOC should “establish a task force consisting of the members of the currently existing WADA- IOC Pre- Games Testing Task Force … thereby striking a fair balance between your stated concerns between ‘ collective responsibility and individual justice’ so that no truly clean elite Russian athlete is barred from the Rio Olympic Games.”
Time is of the essence, the 14 national drug testing officials told Bach.
“In light of the strength of the ( McLaren) Report which the IOC, WADA and the Olympic Movement have fully accepted, and given the short amount of time remaining before the Rio Olympic Games, we believe it is appropriate and necessary for the IOC to take decisive action to uphold the Olympic Charter and the integrity of the Rio Olympic Games.”