Don’t do a Mack in Tokyo
OLYMPICS: Aussie athletes will be warned to cop it sweet and not do a Mack Horton if they feel they’ve been swindled out of gold by a Russian at next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
The Australian Olympic Committee has launched a scathing attack on Russia’s blatant abuse of performanceenhancing drugs and vowed not to stop Aussie athletes from speaking out themselves, but will tell them not to protest at medal ceremonies.
“The advice that we’ll give all athletes is that there’s an appropriate time to protest and there’s times that aren’t appropriate,” AOC vice-president Ian Chesterman said.
“Clearly, we will be saying the podium is not a place to protest because the Olympic guidelines are very clear on that and an athlete takes the risk that they’ll be stripped of their medal.”
Horton was warned but allowed to keep his silver medal after he protested at the decision to let Sun Yang compete at this year’s world swimming championships in South Korea before the appeal into the Chinese’s latest doping case had been settled.
Horton was hailed a hero by other frustrated swimmers who felt emboldened by his brave stance, but Chesterman said athletes needed to find a different way of venting their anger because the repercussions for demonstrating at Olympic medal ceremonies were so severe.
“Everyone might have a beef with somebody based on something, so we’re saying the podium is not a place to protest,” he said.
While the AOC has strongly backed the recommendation from the World Anti-Doping Agency to ban Russia from major international competitions for four years, plenty of others believe the penalties don’t go far enough.
Unless Russia succeeds in winning an appeal against the ruling, there will be no official Russian team at Tokyo, meaning no flag, no anthem and no recognition on the medals table.
But Russian athletes will still be allowed to compete as individuals as long as they can prove they were not part of the state-sponsored doping system and Chesterman says they should be given the benefit of the doubt.
“Everyone will take their own feelings forward and there’s a lot of anger in the world with what’s happened with Russia and their abuse of the anti-doping system, but our judicial system says you don’t punish the innocent to punish the guilty,” he said.
“It's obvious the Russians have been involved in systematic cheating of the system and world sport needs to stand up and ... four years is a good ban. I think it’s an appropriate ban.”