Russia will still have to leave its official Track and Field team at home, but the rest of the squad will be able to compete under the country’s flag at the 2016 Summer Olympic games.
Sunday the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rejected international calls and the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) recommendation to ban the entire Russian Olympic team from the Rio games.
The IOC, which isn’t known as the most incorruptible organization itself, claimed a total team ban would endanger the rights of individual athletes. Which is pretty much the argument Vladimir Putin has made this entire time. Makes you wonder what kind of pressure he was able to put on the IOC to avoid the ban.
“Every human being is entitled to individual justice,” IOC president Thomas Bach said.
International Olympic Committee: No blanket ban on Russian team; decision up to individual sports federations. https://t.co/OGF5O9F9rz
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) July 24, 2016
The ruling wasn’t a complete get-out-of-jail-free card for Russia. Any athlete that has ever been caught doping will not be allowed to participate in the games, even if they’ve never been suspended. Every Russian athlete will have his or her drug-testing record checked by non-Russian international sports federations, with only tests done outside of Russia counted towards each athlete’s Olympic eligibility.
Needless to say, not everyone was pleased with the IOC’s ruling Sunday. Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) released a statement of his own.
“The decision regarding Russian participation and the confusing mess left in its wake is a significant blow to the rights of clean athletes,” Tygart said.
The decision to ban all Russian athletes that have ever been busted (or confessed to) doping isn’t without controversy. Yulia Stepanova was one of the whistleblowers that blew the lid off Russian Olympic doping as she wanted to compete clean. She’s now banned from the Olympics this year and maybe the foreseeable future.
“The decision to refuse her (Stepanova’s) entry into the games is incomprehensible,” Tygart said. ” And will undoubtedly deter whistleblowers in the future from coming forward.”
British IOC member Adam Pengilly tells @BBCSport he is "embarrassed" by decision of his own executive board https://t.co/1hqCJJQWq4
— Dan Roan (@danroan) July 24, 2016
Only one Russian track athlete, Darya Klishina, is eligible to compete in the games so far. Klishina, though she competes for Russia, lives in the U.S. and has been tested extensively outside Russia.
So who else is banned, specifically? Some pretty big names in international competition. Some that, by their absence, will reset the field.
Yulia Efimova, the current world champion in the 100-meter breastroke is banned. As is 2012 Olympic weight lifting silver medalist Tayan Kashirina. Olga Zabelinskaya, who won the bronze medalist in cycling in 2012, will also have to stay home.
Any Russian athlete that does compete in the games will be subject to what the IOC calles “rigorous testing” outside of the regular Olympic testing program.
This seems to set up what could be the worst Russian team performance in Olympic history. At this point it would probably better for Russia to have been banned completely. If they show up and are no where near the podium in events they dominated in the past, that will prove how widespread their doping issues were better than any stodgy report.
Russia doped in Paralympics too
The Paralympics exist as a celebration of humanity. our differences, our diversity and our spirit. That’s why it’s especially horrible that Russia’s Olympic doping spread even to sports where people with physical disabilities compete.
Russia may even be suspended in the Paralympics in Rio https://t.co/ShntKONufU
— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) July 24, 2016
According to a report from National Public Radio, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has opened suspension proceedings for Russia’s Paralympic team. According to the official Russian Doping report (the McLaren Report), Russian para athletes had 35 positive doping samples just disappear from a lab in Moscow. The report also identified 19 samples from the Sochi Winter Paralympics that were possibly altered.
“The report revealed an unimaginable scale of institutionalized doping in Russian sport that was orchestrated at the highest level,” Sir Philip Craven, the IPC president said. “McLaren’s findings are serious concern for everyone committed to clean and honest sport.”
The Russian National Paralympic Committee (NPC) will get the chance to defend itself before a ban is possibly handed down. So good luck with that.
