Russia at risk of Tokyo Olympics ban over ‘inconsistent’ Moscow lab data
Russia faces the prospect of being banned from next year’s Olympics in Tokyo after the World Anti-Doping Agency gave it three weeks to explain apparent inconsistencies in data from its Moscow laboratory or to suffer the consequences.
Wada confirmed on Monday that it had opened a formal compliance procedure against Russia and also asked it to explain how a number of positive drugs tests had been deleted from a database extracted from the lab in January.
Sources close to the situation believe there is now a strong possibility Russia will be banned from the Olympic Games and it is not inconceivable such a punishment could also extend to competitions in any sport signed up to Wada’s code, including the football World Cup.
On Monday, the IAAF, athletics’ governing body, said its council had unanimously agreed that the Russian Athletics Federation would remain suspended, as it has been since 2015, meaning that its athletes will still not be able to compete under their own flag when the World Athletics Championships begin in Doha, Qatar on Friday. Instead they will compete as “authorised neutral athletes”.
Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the president of Russia’s Olympic Committee, admitted the situation was “very serious” and could jeopardise Russia’s Olympic participation.
“We have spent vast diplomatic efforts to regain the trust of the international sports community and for Russian athletes to have the right to take part in Olympics without any restrictions,” he said. “But now we again run the risk of facing sanctions.”
Wada lifted its ban on the Russian Anti-Doping Agency in September 2018, much to the anger of the wider global anti-doping community and athlete groups. Critics said the Russians had refused to accept the findings of the McLaren report that concluded its government was involved in a massive doping conspiracy.
Wada said it had to compromise in order to get the data from the Moscow lab, which it had wanted since 2015, in order to build cases against athletes suspected of being involved in a statesponsored doping programme.
However, Wada’s board was told on Monday that investigators had also found inconsistencies between a data set passed to it by a whistleblower in 2017 and the evidence extracted in January.
Jonathan Taylor, chairman of Wada’s committee tasked with overseeing Russia’s compliance, told the New York Times the Russians needed to “pull a rabbit out of a hat” to avoid new penalties. “There were positive findings that were deleted; the question is why … We will give them a chance to explain.”
The Russian sports minister, Pavel Kolobkov, said the ministry would cooperate with Wada, adding that experts in the field of digital technology would be involved.
The chief executive of the US AntiDoping Agency, Travis Tygart, who has repeatedly warned that Wada was being played by Russia, said he was unsurprised by the latest news.
“Let’s hope there are no secret backroom deals but that justice is finally served in an open, transparent and public manner,” he said. “The world, and especially clean athletes, have already been yanked around enough already.”
The IAAF also confirmed it would meet the German TV channel ZDF, which said on Sunday it has footage of two Kenyan athletes – one male, one female – competing in the world championships injecting the blood-boosting drug EPO. ZDF also made allegations about positive doping tests being hidden in the country.
“No one country is bigger than the championships we are hosting here [in Doha],” the IAAF president, Sebastian Coe, warned.
Athletics Kenya has denied any wrongdoing, with Barnabas Korir, a member of its executive, telling ZDF: “We make sure that our national team follows the rules. The athletes know the consequences: if someone has doped, they are thrown out of the team and never wear the national colours of Kenya again.”