Scott says ban ‘a step in the right direction’

Beckie Scott has been in this fight longer than most.

On Tuesday, the anti-doping crusader and former cross-country skier from Alberta could claim victory following unprecedented disciplinary action taken by the International Olympic Committee against Russia.

Russia’s Olympic committee has been suspended; only Russian athletes who prove themselves tested and clean will compete at the 2018 Winter Games and only under the neutral designation of OAR, Olympic Athletes of Russia.

The punitive actions came after an IOC report that confirmed Russia’s systemic manipulation of anti-doping efforts at the 2014 Sochi Games.

“A day like today really infuses some confidence and restores some faith in the sport bodies and leadership that is controlling and managing sport right now. Athletes lost a lot of trust, and I think they can be encouraged and reinvigorated by today,” Scott said. “I feel it was positive, it was a step in the right direction and they landed in the right place.”

There will be no Russian anthem played, nor a Russian flag displayed, should any of the OAR athletes win a medal.

And those victory ceremonies will be scheduled around others to finally honour the athletes cheated by Russia out of their legitimate opportunity to stand on the podium in Sochi.

That’s a facet of the IOC response that surprised and pleased Scott. It also hit home. She finished third in the five-kilometre pursuit in Salt Lake City in 2002, only to be upgraded to gold after Russian blood dopers Larisa Lazutina and Olga Danilova were stripped of their medals. Scott received her gold medal in Vancouver in 2004, in front of perhaps a couple hundred people.