Olympians face crucial decision on Russian participation in Rio

DUSSELDORF: The executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is readying itself for a crucial conference call on Sunday to decide whether to exclude all Russian athletes from the upcoming Rio de Janeiro Games.

An IOC spokesman confirmed the conference call on Saturday but did not want to say whether the outcome would be published on Monday or Tuesday.

The IOC said earlier in the week it would announce its decision on Tuesday at the latest, just 10 days before the opening ceremony of the August 5-21 Olympics in Brazil.

Olympians must decide whether Russia’s national Olympic Committee can be suspended after a World AntiDoping Agency (WADA) report by its investigator Richard McLaren spoke of widespread and state-organised doping in various Russian sports.

The report also spoke of manipulation of doping test samples from Russian athletes during the Winter Olympics 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

So far only Russia’s athletics team is banned from Rio as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday confirmed a suspension of the Russian athletics federation by the sport’s ruling body IAAF, and the IAAF’s rejection of applications by 67 Russian athletes to compete in Rio as neutral athletes.

The CAS stressed the ruling only applied for athletics and that it could not say what would happen if the Russian Olympic Committee nominated track and field athletes directly to the IOC which was not part of the athletics arbitration process.

Russia has nominated 387 athletes for Rio, a figure that included the 67 track and field athletes.

The IOC led by German Thomas Bach must carefully look at the legal aspects of a possible blanket ban as Russia is expected to appeal such a ruling before CAS and possibly civil courts. For German sports justice expert Rainer Cherkah, a full ban constitutes a “legal balancing act.”

He said that strict interpretation of the WADA Code only allows a ban for multiple doping offences during an event, not before it. It also remains unclear whether the Olympic Charter allows such a measure.

But Cherkah also admitted that participation of Russia in Rio would be “unacceptable” if the McLaren report evidence proves to be correct.