WADA decision damages Russia’s hopes for Winter Games

The World Anti-doping Agency dealt a blow to Russia’s hopes of competing at next year’s Winter Olympics by refusing to reinstate the country’s suspended anti-doping operation, and Russia responded by insisting, as it has all along, that the government had nothing to do with doping.

At its meeting Thursday in South Korea, WADA said two key requirements for reinstating the Russian Anti-doping Agency had still not been fulfilled: that Russia publicly accepts results of an investigation by Canadian Richard Mclaren concluding that the country ran a state-sponsored doping program and that the country allows access to urine samples collected during the time of the cheating.

Craig Reedie, the chairman of WADA and a member of the International Olympic Committee, acknowledged that improvements have been made but full compliance had not been achieved.

“There are two issues that have to be fulfilled and we can’t walk away from the commitments,” Reedie said.

The IOC has final say on Russia’s participation at the upcoming Winter Olympics, and Reedie refused to be drawn in on what impact Thursday’s decision might have.

“We do not have the right to decide who takes part in international competition,” Reedie said. “I am quite certain that the IOC would prefer that RUSADA was compliant.”

The IOC said it is working to ensure Russian athletes undergo sufficient drug testing before the Olympics.

The IOC said its executive board, due to meet Dec. 5 to 7, “will take all the circumstances, including all the measures to ensure a level-playing field at the Olympic Winter Games 2018, into consideration when it decides on the participation of the Russian athletes.”

Russia has depicted the doping program that marred the 2014 Games in Sochi as the work of individuals, not the government. Alexander Zhukov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee and also a member of the International Olympic Committee, told WADA members that “We absolutely deny the existence of a state-sponsored doping system.”

“It is clear that an unconditional recognition of the Mclaren Report is impossible,” Zhukov said. “Such a requirement cannot, and should not serve as an obstacle to the full compliance of RUSADA.”

The Kremlin also repeated the denial of any government backing for dopers.