IOC consider total Olympic ban for Russia after Wada report

Russia’s ambitiously corrupt will to win - at whatever cost - now appears certain to deny them a place in the Rio Olympics, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) facing mounting pressure to impose an outright ban on their participation after evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping is detailed in the latest report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

Wada themselves are leading the call for that outright ban, given the independent report revealed “orchestrated systematic cheating of Russian athletes to subvert the doping control process” and with that the presumption of innocence “in all Russian sports is seriously called into question.”

On that note, “Wada recommends to the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to consider, under their respective Charters, to decline entries, for Rio 2016, of all athletes submitted by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and the Russian Paralympic Committee.

“Furthermore, any exceptional entry of a Russian athlete should be considered by the IOC and IPC for participation under a neutral flag and in accordance with very strict criteria. Wada also recommends that Russian Government officials be denied access to international competitions, including Rio 2016.”

So, even at this late stage, 18 days before the opening ceremony in Rio, Russia’s participation is looking untenable: while their track and field athletes are already banned, evidence within the report indicates their illegal doping practices extended far beyond athletics.

In their own response to the report, the IOC stated it “will now carefully study the complex and detailed allegations, in particular with regard to the Russian Ministry of Sport”.

IOC President Thomas Bach added: “The findings of the report show a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games. Therefore, the IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organisation implicated,”

“In the immediate short term, the IOC Executive Board (EB) will convene in a telephone conference tomorrow to take its first decisions, which may include provisional measures and sanctions with regard to the Olympic Games Rio 2016.”

Among those also calling for the strongest possible response from the IOC is Dr Una May, head of anti-doping at Sport Ireland.

“It is shocking, even if it just reinforces what came out earlier in the year,” said May. “Irrelevant of what country it is, you’d hope there will be the strongest response, that they take the strongest possible stance. And it would be very disappointing if this isn’t taken very seriously, by the IOC.

“But it is going to take a brave move, and I hope they take that brave move, because we need to see a serious response to this. It’s an opportunity to make a very clear statement on what’s not acceptable.

“And it seems to go back to the old Eastern bloc situation, of systematic doping. You only have to go a small way into the report to see how corrupt it was. And it’s certainly disappointing that this scale of corruption was allowed to happen, and because it went to the highest level, the Government level, it was hard to see how any anti-doping programme could realistically impact on.

“There is something positive though in that these series of investigations were able to uncover what was going on, got to the core of the problem, and that is huge in the future fight against doping. But it’s the IOC call on this, ultimately, and the IOC need to look very closely at their Olympic charter, and what are the basic principles of Olympianism, but we believe there is scope there for them to take a very significant action.”

According to the report, independently chaired by Canadian sports lawyer Richard McLaren and presented in a Toronto yesterday, the Moscow state laboratory protected Russian athletes not just during the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, where Russia topped the medal table with 33 medals: the report also implicates illegal doping practices at the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow, and the 2013 World University Games staged in Kazan, where Russia won an unprecedented 292 medals overall.

“Upon embarking on its investigation the IP (independent person) quickly found a wider means of concealing positive doping results than had been publically described for Sochi,” according to McLaren

“The Sochi Laboratory urine sample swapping scheme was a unique standalone approach to meet a special set of circumstances. Behind this lay a greater systematic scheme operated by the Moscow Laboratory for false reporting of positive samples supported by what the IP termed the disappearing positive methodology.

“What emerged from all the investigative sources was a simple but effective and efficient method for direction and control under the Deputy Minister of Sport to force the Laboratory to report any positive screen finding as a negative analytical result.”

The report effectively elaborates on the allegations of former Moscow Laboratory chief Dr Grigory Rodchenkov, in May: yet all the evidence is verifiable and can be cross corroborated by multiple sources, according to McLaren.

McLaren also stated that he was “unwaveringly confident in my report”; however, Pat Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) and IOC member, had earlier questioned both the “integrity” and “credibility” of the report, prior to publication.

In a letter leaked to news sources over the weekend, the McLaren report is highlighted by both the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports (CCES) as sufficient grounds for an outright ban on Russia from competing in the Rio.

Hickey then admitted to being “shocked” that both the US and Canadian anti-doping agencies were fronting the calls for the outright ban on Russia, asking “what mandate they have to lead an international call for a ban of another nation in the Olympic family.”

But those international calls are now coming across the world, Wada president Sir Craig Reedie also stating that the “McLaren Report confirms that, at a minimum, Russia’s anti-doping agency return to compliance cannot be considered until all persons from the Russian Ministry of Sport and other Government Departments and Agencies that are implicated by the Report, including RUSADA, are dismissed from their roles.”

As the international agency responsible for leading the collaborative, global, clean sport movement Wada is calling on the sports movement to impose the strongest possible measures to protect clean sport for Rio 2016 and beyond.”