In the most extreme anti-doping measure yet, the International Paralympic Committee has decided to forbid all Russian athletes from competing in the 2016 Paralympic Games, which are scheduled to take place after the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from September 7th – 18th.
As long as the Russian Paralympic Committee is suspended, it may not enter athletes in the 2016 Paralympic Games. While this ruling is similar to the controversial rulings and re-rulings made by the IOC in regards to Russian athletes, it is important to understand that the IOC and the IPC, though partners, are separate organizations.
After the controversial McLaren Report, published by WADA, there were proposals to ban Russia in the Olympic Games, currently taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Though no complete ban was imposed on Russian athletes, many athletes were pulled from the Russian roster after having tested positive for banned substances, most notably the entire Russian athletics team. Overall, the Russian Olympic team was cut by about 30% after the IOC decided that a wholesale ban was too extreme. However, many of the athletes that were initially banned appealed to the Court of Arbitration of Sport for reconsideration. Some of the athletes that appealed to CAS, including Vlad Morozov and Yulia Efimova, were allowed to compete anyways.
The IPC justifies its decision with the following statements:
“Tragically this situation is not about athletes cheating a system, but about a State-run system that is cheating the athletes. The doping culture that is polluting Russian sport stems from the Russian government and has now been uncovered in not one, but two independent reports commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.”
What is important to remember regarding this decision is that, in the words of the IPC, that athletes have had little or no say in whether or not they would cheat the system in order to increase Russian medal count:
“I believe the Russian government has catastrophically failed its Para athletes. Their medals over morals mentality disgusts me. The complete corruption of the anti-doping system is contrary to the rules and strikes at the very heart of the spirit of Paralympic sport. It shows a blatant disregard for the health and well-being of athletes and, quite simply, has no place in Paralympic sport. Their thirst for glory at all costs has severely damaged the integrity and image of all sport, and has certainly resulted in a devastating outcome for the Russian Paralympic Committee and Para athletes.”
This decision goes beyond just the Paralympic Games. The Russian Paralympic Committee is also suspended from participating in any IPC conferences or summits:
“The effect of the suspension is that the Russian Paralympic Committee loses all rights and privileges of IPC membership. In particular, a member is not entitled to be heard, except with respect to their suspension, or to vote at meetings of members, and/or to enter athletes in competitions sanctioned by the IPC, and/or to participate in IPC activities.”
Given news of this magnitude, there will likely be appeals to the IPC; however, political backlash is certain to follow, regardless of whether or not the decision is repealed. The Russian Paralympic Committee has until August 28th to appeal the decision. The full release from the IPC can be read here.
I believe the IPC suspension should hold. Apparently, there is sufficient evidence to support Sir Phillip Cravens move. Further I believe there is a very large affected group of clean Para Athletes around the world from many countries who have suffered an horrible injustice due to a state run doping program in Russia. Many countries use world rankings to select athletes in Para competition and also to select the most deserving Para athletes for funding. Over the past 4 years obviously world rankings have been doped as well so therefore many athletes have been overlooked for selection and funding. It has probably changed and even ended athlete careers. The Center for Arbitration in Sports in Lausanne should hear a case… Read more »
‘medals over morals’ and “Tragically this situation is not about athletes cheating a system, but about a State-run system that is cheating the athletes” Could we say exactly the same thing about the Australian Swimmers then? 13/14 year old kids don’t decide to cheat on such a huge scale all on their own. We’ve seen the tough stance on doping, now let’s see them get tough on NGBs who support blatant Intentional Misrepresentation.
This is a joke right? they let confirmed dopers compete and decide to ban the entire paralympic team?
seriously – two different organizations not bound by the decisions of the other. They hapen to have a partnership, yes, but the IPC is not the same as the IOC.
Plus, something tells me that the state sponsored doping program has not been extended to the less visible disable athletes.
18 out of 19 Russian samples checked from Sochi Paralympic Games had evidence of tampering. They are now going to check all the rest of the Russian samples from the games. ThIs was not even part of the Mclaren report but was done after the report was issued. So the IPC is doing their own due diligence and they unanimously voted to exclude Russia
From the IPC release:
Following the decision, the IPC is now working with the relevant International Federations to determine how the 267 slots Russian athletes had secured across 18 sports for Rio 2016 can potentially be redistributed to other NPCs. A final decision will not be taken on redistributing these slots until after the outcome of any potential appeal by the Russian Paralympic Committee is decided.
They had about 50 slots for swimming. The clock is ticking if they are going to wait until the appeal which may not happen until the end of the month
https://www.paralympic.org/sites/default/files/document/160622092044142_2016_06_22%2BSlot%2Ballocation_final.pdf
Given that Paralympic teams are not, generally, select by event but rather NPCs are assigned a maximum team size based on their international competitiveness (percentage of ranked athletes in the qualifying window) it would be interesting to know if the IPC is looking to redistribute the Russian berths or if the meet is going to simply get smaller.
Likewise – is there going to be any retroactive measures taken by either FINA or the IPC? Given that there’s no Para equivalent of FINA (at a world level swimming is administrated as if it were some appendage managed by a desk at the IOC) it’s going to be hard for the sport’s governing body to not take further (global) action when… Read more »
But yet a two time doper names Meldoniumova gets to swim. Shame on FINA shame on the IOC