Rio Olympics: No blanket ban for Russian athletes

Rio 2016
Russia
Doping
Sport
Sunday 24 July 2016 at 3:14pm

Video report by ITV News Sports Correspondent Ian Payne

Russian athletes will not be banned from competing in the Rio Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following the state-sponsored doping scandal.

IOC leaders met via teleconference on Sunday to decide on whether to impose a total ban after Russia's track and field athletes were banned by the IAAF, the sport's governing body.

Russia appealed the decision but it was upheld on Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), who produced a report by Richard McLaren into state-sponsored doping, recommended a total ban on all Russian athletes.

A statement from the IOC Executive Board said that it was "guided by a fundamental rule of the Olympic Charter to protect clean athletes and the integrity of sport."

It said that with the Games starting in 12 days, it was unable to have sufficient time for individual hearings for athletes, officials and organisations.

But it will leave decisions on individual athletes' participation with their relevant sports federations.

IOC President Thomas Bach said strict conditions are to be imposed on Russian athletes. Credit: Reuters

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said that Russian federation athletes should assume "collective responsibility" and adhere to strict criteria for International Federations (IFs) and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).

These include:

IFs must apply the WADA code and other principles agreed by the Olympic Summit of June 21.
IFs must not consider the absence of a positive anti-doping test as sufficient.
IFs should carry out individual analyses of each athlete's anti-doping record.
IFs should examine information in the McLaren report and seek names of athletes and officials implicated. Nobody implicated can be accredited for the Olympic Games.
IFs will have to apply respective rules in relation to sanctioning National Federations.
The ROC is not allowed to enter any athlete who has ever been sanctioned for doping, even if he or she has served the sanction.
Russian athletes accepted by the IOC will be subject to rigorous additional testing. Any non-availability for the programme will lead to the immediate withdrawal of IOC accreditation.

It will now be up to individual sports federations to decide who can compete Credit: Reuters

The IOC Executive Board today had to take a very difficult decision both with regards to timing and the content because the qualification procedure and the entry procedure for Rio is well underway. In fact the first athletes are already in the Olympic village. The difficult task today was now to take positions about individuals, to take decisions about the individual athlete and how this is affecting each and every one of them. In this context we had once again to parent the collective responsibility as a concept and the individual justice to reach every human being and every athlete is entitled to. We have reversed presumption of innocence for the Russian athletes in this way making them assume collective responsibility for what has happened according to the McLaren report. On the other hand, natural justice requires that an individual must at least have the chance to rebut these allegations and this reversal of presumption of innocence and therefore we have set the bar to the limit by establishing a number of very strict criteria which every year Russian athletes will have to fulfill if he or she wants to participate in the Olympic Games 2016.

Russia has responded with jubilation, while anti-doping bodies condemned the IOC over what it said was a failure of leadership.

"It is a sad day for clean sport," said Joseph de Pencier, CEO of the international anti-doping body iNADO.

The reaction among UK athletics has been almost universally condemning.

Two-time gold medallist Sharron Davies said it appeared the sports body had "learned absolutely nothing" from previous doping scandals.

Sharron Davies said the IOC decision was a 'cop out'. Credit: ITV News

The Russian Olympic chief Alexander Zhukov said the decision not to impose a blanket ban was "most difficult ones in the entire history of the Olympic movement".

He said the IOC had reached "well-considered decision" to allow athletes to compete.

Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said he is grateful for the IOC's decision but said that doping is a world problem not just a Russian problem.

He added that the IOC criteria are tough for Russian athlets to take part in the Rio Games.

Some 387 Russian athletes wish to compete in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro starting on August 5.