Mixed reaction to IOC decision
MOSCOW – Russia breathed a sigh of relief after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) declined to impose a blanket ban on its competitors at the Rio Games over state-run doping, but the decision met fierce criticism elsewhere with Olympic chiefs branded “spineless”.
In one of the most momentous moves in its chequered history, the IOC said on Sunday it was up to each international sports federation to decide if Russians could take part in Rio.
The federations now face a race against the clock with the opening ceremony only 11 days away, global sport sharply divided and some Russian competitors already in Brazil.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the IOC decision “positive”.
Russian sport and the Kremlin have been rocked by doping scandals that saw its track and field team banned from competition, including Rio, and sparked calls led by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) for all Russians to be barred until they cleaned up.
Dmitry Svishchev, who heads the lower house of Russian parliament’s sports and physical culture committee, said the decision was “not bad”.
But he railed against the ban – still in force – meted out previously to the athletics team.
World champion hurdler Sergey Shubenkov, who cannot take part in Rio as a consequence, tweeted that Sunday’s IOC ruling was “hard, but reasonable”.
Pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda said the IOC had taken the “safest route for itself”.
Russia’s gymnastics team – the first group of Russian athletes to arrive in Rio – are already training in Brazil, coach Valentina Rodionenko told R-Sport news agency “the worst is behind us”.
Most Russian competitors will fly out on Thursday, R-Sport reported, although it remains to be seen how many will actually take part in the Games.
The reaction was in stark contrast to much of the rest of the world.
Olympic chiefs were under pressure to hit Russia with the hardest sanctions possible to punish state-run doping that was laid bare in a Wada-commissioned report a week ago by Richard McLaren.
It revealed wide-ranging Russian doping in Olympic events from 2011 and including the Sochi Games in 2014, where the secret service used a hole drilled in a wall to swap the dirty samples of doping competitors for clean ones, under the noses of international observers.
Russian media praised the decision not to allow Russian whistle blower Yulia Stepanova, who exposed mass doping in athletics, to compete at Rio. –