Russia facing Olympic judgment day as IOC decides Rio 2016 fate
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| The world waits to discover whether the Russian and Olympic flags will be flying together next month. Photograph: Kay Nietfeld/EPA |
Last Wednesday the Russian Olympic Committee named a provisional team of 386 athletes for the Rio Games. It was, for a few hours, a triumph of hope over expectation. Then realpolitik bit hard. The next day, that figure was scythed by 68when the court of arbitration for sport upheld the ban on Russia’s track and field stars competing in the Olympics. Come Sunday afternoon it could be slashed even further – possibly to a handful of athletes.
At midday (BST) the International Olympics Committee’s executive board will discuss what to do next with Russia. By 3pm a statement is expected to announce either a blanket ban or that each individual Olympic sports federation has the power to separately exclude Russian athletes from their competitions.
Whichever way the IOC goes, there will be anger. The stakes are high. Not just for Russia, but for the Olympic movement itself.
On Saturday night the IOC appeared to be moving closer to the position of track and field’s governing body, the IAAF, which refused to allow Russian athletes to go to Rio unless they could prove they were part of a comprehensive and compliant anti-doping programme. It recently gave clearance to just two Russian athletes – Darya Klishina, who trains in Miami, and the whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova – to go to the Games.
Yet some fear delegating the decision to the individual federations could lead to huge inconsistencies. Some organisations, such as the International Weightlifting Federation, would be likely to ban Russian athletes wholesale because of the huge numbers of positive tests in that sport.
Others, like judo, appear inclined to let as many as possible into Rio. As Marius Vizer, the president of the International Judo Federation, explained last week: “The presence of Russian athletes is very important, as the Russian Judo Federation is a prominent member of the International Judo Federation, with Russian judo playing a great role in the history of sport.”
As a result, many anti-doping groups want Wada and the IOC to make the decision over which athletes are allowed – not the federations. Last week 14 such organisations, including the United States Anti-Doping Agency, wrote to the IOC president, Thomas Bach, asking him to suspend the Russian Olympic Committeeand ban all Russian athletes from the Olympics – but to allow them to compete under a neutral flag if a taskforce, approved by the IOC and Wada, verified they were clean. They believe this will strike a fair balance between collective responsibility and individual justice “so that no truly clean elite Russian athlete is barred from the Olympic Games”.
That, as the World Anti-Doping Agency president, Craig Reedie, neatly explained on Saturday, is the backdrop to the decision, before making clear where his instincts lay. “You cannot simply assume across all 28 summer sports the state of play is the same – and that gymnasts, for example, are in same situation as track and field or a swimmer.”
Others passionately disagree. Those arguing for a blanket ban believe it is the only punishment suitable for the gravity of Russia’s crimes, which have been laid bare by a series of reports finding “state-sponsored doping” from Wada, most recentlyby the Canadian law professor Richard McLaren.
As the British IOC member, Adam Pengilly, puts it: “The scale, coordination and leadership of a doping system like this is arguably the most heinous crime possible against the Olympic movement. So, somewhat reluctantly, I am led to one conclusion: exclusion from Rio. I say reluctantly because there are very probably clean Russian athletes, and they will suffer, and this is nothing short of terrible. There’s no fair outcome for everyone, but the Russian flag should not be flown at the Rio Games.”
That view that Russia should be banned is shared by Richard Ings, the former head of the Australian Anti-Doping Agency, but from a different perspective. “Russia was a host of a Winter Olympics yet ran a fraudulent doping programme to cheat other athletes for the benefit of Russians,” he said. “They can’t be allowed to get away with that. Ethically, what needs to happen is very simple, but politically it is very complicated. Many of those friendships between IOC blazers at cocktail parties will be blown up.”
However, Ings also blames Wada for not doing more earlier, to give individual Russian athletes the chance to show they were clean. “It was all avoidable. Everyone knew there were serious problems with Russia in 2013 – yet Wada did nothing until nearly 18 months later. If this had been investigated immediately, then the Russians could be given a clear ultimatum detailing what they needed to do to qualify for the Olympics.
“But if you are saying Russian athletes can’t go because of not satisfactory testing, then shouldn’t that apply to other countries?” he adds. “My view is you have a performance qualifying standard to qualify for the Olympics, then there should be anti-doping standard as well. Every athlete should have a full and regular blood and urine screen – and if you haven’t met that standard you don’t go.”
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