Russia sees better chance of competing in Rio
Isinbayeva vows lawsuit
MOSCOW, May 23, (Agencies): Russia’s track and field team has a slightly better than even chance of overturning a doping ban and being allowed to compete at the Rio Olympics, athletics chief Dmitry Shlyakhtin said on Monday.
Russia was suspended from world athletics in November after an international investigation uncovered damning evidence of pervasive doping and corruption. Athletics’ governing body, the IAAF, will decide on June 17 whether Moscow has done enough to clean up its act and be readmitted to competition.
“Today our conscience is clear. We have done everything that we needed to do. We have started afresh, we have looked through our documents and made them legally sound. A mouse would not be able to slip past us now!” said Shlyakhtin, head of the All-Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF).
Meanwhile, two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva plans to file suit if Russia’s ban from global track and field competition remains in place and she is barred from competing at the games in Rio de Janeiro.
“It’s a direct violation of human rights, discrimination,” Isinbayeva said.
Russia’s athletics federation was suspended by the IAAF in November after a World Anti-Doping Agency commission report detailed systematic, state-sponsored doping. The IAAF is due to rule next month on whether to reinstate Russia ahead of the Rio Olympics in August.
“In the case of a negative ruling for us, I will personally go to an international court regarding human rights,” Isinbayeva said. “And I’m confident that I’ll win.”
Speaking from her home city of Volgograd in a Skype interview arranged by Russian track officials, Isinbayeva held up four forms documenting recent drug tests she had passed — proof enough, she said, that she should be allowed to compete in Rio.
“Of course I’m angry because of this helplessness. All I can do now is train,” she said, adding that young Russian athletes’ careers could be destroyed if they have to wait until 2020 to go to the Olympics. “Four years, it’s a long time. Many of them can be, how can you say, broken.”
Isinbayeva’s comments came as a key adviser to Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that Russia’s government supports making doping a criminal offense.
Adviser Nataliya Zhelanova told reporters at the ministry that the government hopes to get the law on the statute books for 2017, targeting coaches and officials who encourage or coerce athletes to dope. Fines or prison sentences were possible, she said, though this could change during the legislative process.
“It’s quite a long procedure but now everyone understood that we are in crisis and we have to do quick steps to fix the situation,” Zhelanova said.
In December, the IAAF asked the Russian track federation to consider lobbying for distribution and trafficking of doping substances to be made a criminal offense.