Update: The IOC has not barred the Russian Federation from the Olympic Games, but has put very stringent restrictions upon their participation.
While no official announcement has come from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), British news outlet The Daily Mail is reporting that “well-placed sources” have told them that the organization decided today to ban all 387 Russian athletes from competing at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
If the sources prove accurate, this will be the first time that Russia has not competed at an Olympic Games since the Russian Olympic Committee was recognized in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union, though the related Soviet Union team self-imposed a boycott of the 1984 Games hosted in Los Angeles.
Last week, a report by Richard McLaren (the McLaren report), commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Association, confirmed a wide-spread, state-sponsored doping apparatus in Russia. The report specifically centered on the 2014 Russian-hosted Olympics, where there were protocols put in place to protect Russian athletes.
This would also mark the first time in history that an entire country has been barred from the Olympics for doping. The IOC, after the McLaren report, said that they had to await the decision by the international Court of Arbitration for Sport with regard to the IAAF’s ban of all Russian athletics federations before making a decision. The CAS upheld that ban by rejecting an appeal from 67 Russian athletes and the Russian Olympic Committee.
The Russians’ primary outlet to appeal this decision would be to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It’s unclear at this point if there are any other legal avenues for the Russian Olympic Committee, though their president Vladimir Putin has taken a keen interest in the matter.
The Daily Mail is saying that “senior IOC figures are also advocating a ban for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.”
The sources did, however, say that IOC president Thomas Bach is open to allowing certain Russian individual athletes to compete at the Olympics under the neutral Olympic flag. These athletes would have to prove a higher standard of being undoped, which might include training outside of Russia and their sphere of corruption.
International federations, which in the case of swimming would be FINA, will be asked to “examine the personal merits of potential Russian athletes, to assess whether they can compete as exceptional cases,” the Daily Mail continued. Two athletes have already been cleared to compete outside of the IAAF ban of athletics: a distance runner who blew the whistle on the Russian doping scheme, and a long-jumper Darya Klishina, who is based in Florida in the United States.
Among the key members of the Russian Olympic Team who train outside of Russia are Vlad Morozov, who primarily trains in Southern California. An interesting test of the IOC’s willingness to grant exceptions will be two others trained in America: Yulia Efimova and Grigory Tarasevich. Both have tested positive for the banned substance meldonium in 2016, and both have been cleared without suspensions. By the alleged standard of being outside of the sphere of Russian influence, both would meet that duty despite both having been sanctioned by public warnings for their tests.
An IOC spokesman says that the Executive Board will meet on Sunday to discuss the matter and send out a statement shortly thereafter.
No Ban, but Russian Olympic Committee NOT ALLOWED to enter any athlete for Rio Olympics who has ever been sanctioned for doping
So no Efimova in Rio
And Tarasevich.
IOC just announced that they will not be banning the Russian team.
I have no idea why this statement was deemed to be not worthy of posting, but I will say this again. I wish the IOC had had the balls to do this with East Germany years ago. By letting it slide with the DDR, other countries tried to get away with it as well and now all we have is one BIG mess.
That’s in the article
Remember that the article is by Daily Mail, the National Enquirer of UK.
My Friends it is not so simple. Do not hurry to blame people for medonium use. Out of 150-160 positives there were only 47 Russians. Now we even have the best USA volleyball player performing for Russian club, who was positive for M.
PLS, ANSWER TO YOURSELF (for me it is cry
slal clear) ON FOLLOWING QUESTION:
Does Creatine loading technique enhance sport results in sprint events (and not only in sprint)?
YES IT DOES! THERE ARE HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS ACADEMIC STUDIES THAT PROVE IT. You can find in in Internet very rapidly (in 5 minutes time) dozens of articles . Do athletes in different sports and in ALL countries use creatine supplements in their preparation?… Read more »
Having nearly a third of the positive tests being from people of one country makes it seem like a fairly valid response to blame Russia.
Meldonium clinical studies for human use are not a robust set, and only one such mildronate study to date has been published by a non-Russian scientist, and it was conducted by a researcher at University of Latvia. This study observed use over a 12 week duration; see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22186118 …there has also been one pharmaco study done to observe side effects on patients that had meldonium administered for 13 days. The only immediate observation of note was insomnia.
Meldonium is a drug western scientists know little about beyond the efficacy of blood work impact. The long term health consequences are unknown unknowns and the published sponsored research done by Russian scientists is severely limited… Read more »
Mr. Vorontsov I will appreciate it if you answer the following question: Have been Swedish swimmers using meldonium under your guidance? If they haven’t, then why? What was the reason not to use it? It is so accessible and has long history of usage by sportpersons from neighbouring countries for decades. It looks like you had heard nothing bad about it. As former coach of Ms. Efimova stated it was stupid to be caught on such peanuts like meldonium. She most likely knows what she was talking about, not considering meldonium a candy bar.
Thanks.
A jerk like Putin may announce he’s going out there for himself because he doesn’t need the Olympics anymore and he will have his own Olympics. He will organize Asian Games or whatever he calls it featuring just the countries he likes. When USSR was banned at Los Angeles, Moscow held socialist-only Olympics where only stooges of Moscow like Poland or Hungary were invited. I think it was called the Spartakiada or something.
USSR was not banned from LA. They chose not to go. Spartkiade was a comp that was already held regularly .
Asian Games is a real thing since 1951
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Games
And by the way, USSR was NOT BANNED at Los Angeles Olympics.
Get your facts straight buddy
…The Daily Mail is reporting that “well-paid sources”…
is more pertinent, I guess
Russia’s athletes must all be banned – they’re a TEAM! They win as a team, representing their culpable country. As a Canadian, I wonder if our teams have played against “doped” players? Very likely? Hm, after all, hockey’s one sport at which Russia craves winning. Fortunately, Canada’s been thumping Russian teams, both at The World’s and The Olympics – crushing ’em!