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Russia has become the first country in sporting history to be banned from sending athletes to an Olympic games for doping, in a move the Kremlin has argued represents a western conspiracy to humiliate the nation.
On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee, the games organisers, responded to revelations of “systemic” doping by the country’s sportspeople by barring the Russian Olympic Committee from attending the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February next year.
The decision means that no athletes will be permitted to compete under the Russian flag and the country’s officials will not be allowed to attend.
In an attempt at compromise, the IOC said Russian athletes deemed to be “clean” would be able to appear — but only under a neutral banner. This means Russia’s “uniform, flag and anthem” will not appear at the event.
Russia deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko, a close ally of Mr Putin and the former minister for sport, has also been banned from participating in all future Olympics. Mr Mutko is helping to orchestrate the football World Cup taking place in Russia next year.
The IOC’s decision came late on Tuesday night in Russia but even before the announcement Russian officials had threatened to boycott the event if its sportspeople were forced to compete as neutrals.
Thomas Bach, IOC president, said Russia’s doping programme represented “an unprecedented attack on the Olympic Games and sport”.
“This is a proportionate sanction for the manipulation and failure of the [doping] system.”
Mr Bach said: “An Olympic boycott has never achieved anything … and I don’t see a reason for a Russian boycott because we allow the clean Russian athletes to participate [in order] to show there are clean athletes in Russia.”
Alexander Zhukov, head of Russia’s Olympic committee, said the decision was a “tragedy” for Russia’s athletes and accused other countries of doping while going unpunished.
“What should [Russian athletes] feel, being punished without any evidence of their guilt, when they will be forced to watch the events on TV where their foreign colleagues who legally take doping substances with all sorts of doctor’s permissions are competing? Nothing but offence and disappointment,” he said.
Russian athletes were divided on whether to attend. Figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva said she would not participate under a neutral flag. “I’m proud of my country, it’s a huge honour for me to represent it at the Games. It gives me strength and inspires me when I perform,” she said.
But ice hockey star Ilya Kovalchuk said Russia’s team needed to compete. “Refusing means surrender! All clean athletes should go. It’ll be the last games for many, and they won’t have a chance to go to the Olympics again,” said Mr Kovalchuk, who is 35.
The Kremlin did not immediately comment on whether it would permit Russian athletes to compete under a neutral flag.
The IOC made its decision after an investigation into Russian involvement in doping found the country had failed to clean up its sporting system.
In recent years, the country has faced revelations that its anti-doping officials helped athletes take performance-enhancing drugs, while government and security officials assisted in the cover-up of failed tests.
Russia’s ban had been considered inevitable in Olympic circles over the past few weeks.
Last month, the World Anti-Doping Agency rejected an appeal by Rusada, Russia’s anti-doping authority, to be reinstated into the world body and deemed compliant with global testing standards. That decision meant Wada believed Russia could not be trusted to properly test its athletes.
The IOC also corroborated the findings of a Wada investigation, led by Richard McLaren, a Canadian law professor, unravelling years in which Russian anti-doping officials helped athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs, with the strategy directed by government ministers.
The extraordinary findings even suggested that the FSB, Russia’s secret service and successor to the Soviet-era KGB, worked to remove the caps from urine sample bottles which were previously thought to be tamper-proof, in order to swap dirty samples for clean ones.
Russia has strongly disputed the findings, questioning the legitimacy of information provided by whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, who ran Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory during the Sochi winter games in Russia in 2014. Mr Putin had wanted to use the Sochi games as a coming-out party for the nation, spending a reported $51bn to stage the event.
Last month, the IOC backed Mr Rodchenkov — who has gone into hiding in the US as part of a witness-protection programme — by describing him as a “truthful witness.”
Before the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the IOC declined to impose a blanket ban on Russian athletes, leaving it to individual sports federations to decide whether the country’s competitors were clean. This meant 271 of Russia’s original 386-strong team were able to compete.
https://www.ft.com/content/3aa27dd8-d9eb-11e7-a039-c64b1c09b482
On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee, the games organisers, responded to revelations of “systemic” doping by the country’s sportspeople by barring the Russian Olympic Committee from attending the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February next year.
The decision means that no athletes will be permitted to compete under the Russian flag and the country’s officials will not be allowed to attend.
In an attempt at compromise, the IOC said Russian athletes deemed to be “clean” would be able to appear — but only under a neutral banner. This means Russia’s “uniform, flag and anthem” will not appear at the event.
Russia deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko, a close ally of Mr Putin and the former minister for sport, has also been banned from participating in all future Olympics. Mr Mutko is helping to orchestrate the football World Cup taking place in Russia next year.
The IOC’s decision came late on Tuesday night in Russia but even before the announcement Russian officials had threatened to boycott the event if its sportspeople were forced to compete as neutrals.
Thomas Bach, IOC president, said Russia’s doping programme represented “an unprecedented attack on the Olympic Games and sport”.
“This is a proportionate sanction for the manipulation and failure of the [doping] system.”
Mr Bach said: “An Olympic boycott has never achieved anything … and I don’t see a reason for a Russian boycott because we allow the clean Russian athletes to participate [in order] to show there are clean athletes in Russia.”
Alexander Zhukov, head of Russia’s Olympic committee, said the decision was a “tragedy” for Russia’s athletes and accused other countries of doping while going unpunished.
“What should [Russian athletes] feel, being punished without any evidence of their guilt, when they will be forced to watch the events on TV where their foreign colleagues who legally take doping substances with all sorts of doctor’s permissions are competing? Nothing but offence and disappointment,” he said.
Russian athletes were divided on whether to attend. Figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva said she would not participate under a neutral flag. “I’m proud of my country, it’s a huge honour for me to represent it at the Games. It gives me strength and inspires me when I perform,” she said.
But ice hockey star Ilya Kovalchuk said Russia’s team needed to compete. “Refusing means surrender! All clean athletes should go. It’ll be the last games for many, and they won’t have a chance to go to the Olympics again,” said Mr Kovalchuk, who is 35.
The Kremlin did not immediately comment on whether it would permit Russian athletes to compete under a neutral flag.
The IOC made its decision after an investigation into Russian involvement in doping found the country had failed to clean up its sporting system.
In recent years, the country has faced revelations that its anti-doping officials helped athletes take performance-enhancing drugs, while government and security officials assisted in the cover-up of failed tests.
Russia’s ban had been considered inevitable in Olympic circles over the past few weeks.
Last month, the World Anti-Doping Agency rejected an appeal by Rusada, Russia’s anti-doping authority, to be reinstated into the world body and deemed compliant with global testing standards. That decision meant Wada believed Russia could not be trusted to properly test its athletes.
The IOC also corroborated the findings of a Wada investigation, led by Richard McLaren, a Canadian law professor, unravelling years in which Russian anti-doping officials helped athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs, with the strategy directed by government ministers.
The extraordinary findings even suggested that the FSB, Russia’s secret service and successor to the Soviet-era KGB, worked to remove the caps from urine sample bottles which were previously thought to be tamper-proof, in order to swap dirty samples for clean ones.
Russia has strongly disputed the findings, questioning the legitimacy of information provided by whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, who ran Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory during the Sochi winter games in Russia in 2014. Mr Putin had wanted to use the Sochi games as a coming-out party for the nation, spending a reported $51bn to stage the event.
Last month, the IOC backed Mr Rodchenkov — who has gone into hiding in the US as part of a witness-protection programme — by describing him as a “truthful witness.”
Before the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the IOC declined to impose a blanket ban on Russian athletes, leaving it to individual sports federations to decide whether the country’s competitors were clean. This meant 271 of Russia’s original 386-strong team were able to compete.
https://www.ft.com/content/3aa27dd8-d9eb-11e7-a039-c64b1c09b482
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