The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says Russian athletes will be evaluated individually to determine their eligibility to compete in the Rio Games. The move comes following the IAAF’s decision last Friday to ban Russian track and field athletes from the Games over doping allegations.
21 June 2016
Olympic silver medalist and prominent athletics commentator on Russian TV, Olga Bogoslovskaya, has called Bach’s statements the “first good news” for the country’s track and field athletes since the IAAF imposed a ban on them.
“It’s the best possible outcome we could’ve hoped for. I’m confident that we’ll have time to defend our interests in the legal field and that our team would go to Rio be it in a reduced lineup,” she told RT.
Bogoslovskaya said she contacted the coach of pole vault queen, Yelena Isinbayeva, who was especially happy that IOC ruled that the Russian athletes would compete in Rio under Russia’s national flag.
Speaking about the lawsuits that Russian athletes have to file and win to secure their participation in the Rio Olympics, Zhukov said they “are most likely to file the lawsuits individually and probably with the support of the All-Russia Athletics Federation.”
“The Russian Olympic Committee will definitely provide assistance. If our lawyers find any issues in the IAAF decision that run counter to the Olympic Charter, we will also file a lawsuit,” he added.
“The key reason for suspending Russian athletes” is the distrust of the IAAF and the IOC to the Russian anti-doping system, Aleksandr Zhukov, the head of the Russian Olympic Committee, told journalists after the IOC press conference.
Zhukov said that “in the past six months, it was not the Russian system, it was an international system acting on the territory of Russia,” adding that he sees no reason for the international sports organizations not to trust the doping tests of Russian athletes now.
Zhukov also said that Russia “decided not to send to Rio any athletes who were implied in any doping scandals throughout their careers.”
Russia is ready to establish a transparent anti-doping system with the International Olympic Committee, Russia Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has told R-Sport.
"We fully support [Thomas] Bach, we fully support the IOC. Russia was and will continue to be a part of the international Olympic movement," Mutko said.
Reports on alleged doping violations by Russian sportsmen naturally don’t include the "clean athletes," the Russian Athletic Federation's Dmitry Shliakhtin told RT.
“We had half a year of productive work. We are told that Yuriy Borzakovskiy [the current coach of the Russian track and field team] hasn’t thoroughly taken on board the WADA report, we are hear about [Grigory] Rodchenkov who told [the media] about the Sochi Olympics. I believe it has nothing to do with ‘clean’ athletes,” he said.
Rodchenkov, a former chief of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, claimed in US media that he violated anti-doping regulations during the Sochi Olympics.
The president of the Russian Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov, has called on International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach to make a fair decision towards Russian athletes.
“We are extremely saddened by the IAAF [International Association of Athletics Federations] decision to suspend Russian athletes from international competitions, including the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro,” Zhukov wrote in a letter to Bach.
He said that Russia considers this decision to be “unfair” and a “violation of the rights of the overwhelming majority of Russian athletes, who never resorted to use doping and haven’t violated any rules.”
“Moreover, they have been repeatedly tested by independent (foreign) anti-doping agencies and fairly competed for the right to participate in the Olympic Games.”
20 June 2016
The head of the All-Russia Athletics Federation, Mikhail Butov, told RT that he hopes that Yelena Isinbayeva and other Russian athletics stars will still compete at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
He said that the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) should trust the athletes who have proven to be clean and are “under the control of the [international] anti-doping systems.”
18 June 2016
“Let’s wait for the final decision, and then we will see what can be done… I still secretly hope that some of our athletes will be allowed to participate in the Olympics individually,” Svetlana Zhurova, Russian MP and Olympic speed skating champion, told RT.
Track and field athletics is one of the key sports in Russia, and the Olympic Games without the Russian team would be “incomplete,” Zhurova noted.
Ice skating legend Irina Rodnina believes that punishing athletes en masse and without exception is not right, but there is no doubt that those caught doping have to be disqualified, she said.
“I feel sorry for our country and for the athletes and I still hope that the International Olympic Committee, which stands for tolerance, peace and friendship… will manage to settle this matter,” Rodnina told RT.
Aleksandr Zhulin, two-time Olympic champion and now figure skating coach, recalled that when Jamaica was involved in a doping scandal, no one thought of disqualifying the whole team and it is not clear why Russia faced such a harsh decision.
“This is not only about sport. It all started long ago from the sanctions and Crimea. These are links of one chain,” Zhulin told RT.
The Vice-President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), John Coates, said that the Olympic body is unlikely to overturn the ban on the Russian athletes at the Games in Rio. "It's an international federation's right to suspend a national federation and I don't think we would overturn that at all," Coates told reporters Saturday in Melbourne, adding that he would be "very, very surprised" with a different decision. The matter is due to be discussed at the IOC summit in Switzerland's Lausanne next week.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed its support for the IAAF decision to ban Russian track-and-field athletes, with the Olympic body executive board saying it welcomes the "strong stance against doping."
"This is in line with the IOC’s long-held zero-tolerance policy," IOC said in its statement, published Saturday.
“The eligibility of athletes in any international competition including the Olympic Games is a matter for the respective International Federation,” the statement read.
Russia is considering a lawsuit against the IAAF’s decision to ban Russian athletes from the Rio Olympics, Mikhail Butov, a Council Member at IAAF and General Secretary at the Russian Athletics Federation, wrote on Facebook.
Nikolai Valuev, a two-time WBA heavyweight champion, told RT that the IAAF decision to upheld the ban on the Russian track and field team ahead of the Rio Olympics has “absolutely no relation to sport” and is “totally politically motivated.”
The issue of doping “is not a Russian problem, it is a global problem,” Valuev said, adding that to focus only on Russia over such an issue was “absolutely wrong.”
Russian heavyweight MMA champion Vitaly Minakov has described the IAAF ban as a “tragedy” for aspiring Olympic athletes who did not use dopings.
“This a tragedy for the whole generation of sportsmen. They live their Olympic dream, and they were deprived of it. Not every day it is possible [for athletes] to be included in the Olympic team. When you have no relation to doping scandals, and you are deprived of [possibility to compete] it’s wrong”, he said at a press conference following the tough Emelianenko-Maldonado fight in St. Petersburg.
“Let’s punish those who are using doping, why lay the blame to the whole team, the whole country?” Minakov asked .
17 June 2016
Russian light heavy weight fighter and martial arts champion Mikhail Mokhnatkin called the IAAF’s decision to indiscriminately ban the entire Russian track and field team “idiocy.”
“This is simply idiocy, I have no other words,” he said speaking to RT on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, adding that “to some extent the attitude towards our country is harmful.”
“This is sad, that one of the strongest teams will not compete in the Olympics,” he lamented.
Mokhnatkin noted that sportsmen undergo rigorous training for years and sacrifice a lot to compete in the Olympics, which take place only once in four years.
He is sure that, despite the ban, Russian athletes will always strive only for the best results and will not give up hope of competing in the games.
“We should show that we wanted it, we want and we will always want it, despite the commission’s decision,” he said.
President Vladimir Putin has condemned the ban on Russian athletes’ participation in the Rio Olympics as “unjust.” Yet, he believes a “solution” can be found to the conflict, stressing that Russia will continue to fight doping.
Speaking earlier at the forum, Putin wondered if the IAAF ban was part of “anti-Russia policies.”
“If someone is trying to politicize something in this area, I think this is a big mistake,” he stressed.
Russia’s two-time Olympic pole vault champion, Yelena Isinbayeva, feels sorry for Russian athletes with clean records who have been “punished for what we haven’t done.” Track and field athletics is an individual sport, and sportsmen can’t be held responsible for what their colleagues do, Isymbayeva told Channel One Russia.
“It looks like they have chosen our country to set a precedent. If there are no probes into other countries’ doping history afterwards, then this is undoubtedly a frame-up,” she said.
Former triple jump world champion Yolanda Chen believes that the disqualification is unfair and politically motivated.
“Let’s be honest, it is clear that the decision was made following orders from above,” Chen told RT.
The Russian Athletics Federation met all of the conditions necessary for the ban to be lifted, but “the outcome was predetermined simply because of global political situation,” Chen said.
“Sport is particularly important for our country… Sport is our life, we always take it very seriously. That’s why those trying to put pressure on our country make such decisions,” she said.
Rune Andersen, head of the IAAF's task force investigating the Russian doping allegations, spoke directly of athlete Yulia Stepanova on Friday.
"Any individual athlete who has made an extraordinary contribution to anti doping - in particular we include Yulia Stepanova here - should be considered favorably," he said.
"I cannot say she will compete in Rio but the Council said they will look favorably."
Information provided by Stepanova and her husband Vitaly, a former Russian anti-doping agency employee, formed part of the investigation.
Here's a clip from the IAAF press conference which took place earlier on Friday.
Russia may appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over the IAAF's decision to uphold the doping ban, Russian athletics official Mikhail Butov told Reuters.
"We need to analyze the document. If there is a basis to do so, we will go there," Butov said, responding to a question of whether Russia would take the case to the CAS, a Swiss-based organization that settles international sporting disputes.
Butov also criticized the IAAF's decision that athletes who trained outside Russia and could show they were not tainted by the Russian system could potentially still compete in the Rio Olympics as neutral competitors.
“How are they supposed to do that – in a white vest?” he said.
The IAAF says it believes no more than five Russian athletes would satisfy the criteria to compete under a neutral flag.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has "taken note" of the IAAF's decision. Its executive board will meet via teleconference on Saturday to "discuss the next appropriate steps."
A statement by the president of the USA track-and-field team and IAFF council member Stephanie Hightower has been posted online.
Under the IAAF's rules, athletes who have committed anti-doping rule violations previously and served their bans are eligible to apply to complete in the future, Rune Andersen said.
Clean athletes suffer if anti-doping rules are not followed, the IAAF's Rune Andersen said.
IAAF President Sebastian Coe said the body's "guiding principle" was to bring clean only athletes to the table.
He called it a "sad day" for everybody, stressing it "was not an easy decision or lightly taken."
Rune Andersen from the IAAF said the first step is for Russia to acknowledge it has a problem, “and then we can move forward.”
Commenting on the documentaries on doping in Russian sports released by German broadcaster ARD, Svetlana Zhurova, Russian MP and Olympic speed skating champion, told RT that “there have been similar films about other countries… but no independent committees were set up afterwards, whole countries didn’t get disqualified."
“A country was always given the chance to get rid of athletes using banned drugs. We were denied this right,” she said.
European Athletics president Svein Arne Hansen posted a statement online following the IAAF's decision.
The IAFF has posted a press release online which states that "RusAF has not met reinstatement conditions."
Responding to a question on whether the IAAF can guarantee that no Russian track-and-field athletes will be competing in Rio under the Russian flag, Rune Andersen said: "You can never guarantee when you are living in the world of lawyers who might appeal cases. So there is no guarantee for anything. But the rule change that we recommended, and it was adopted, states very clearly that those who fall outside of the scope will not be under the Russian flag and will be under the neutral competition system."
“If there are individual athletes who can clearly and convincingly show they are not tainted by the Russian system because they have been outside the country or subject to other strong, anti-doping systems, including effective drug testing, then there should be a process through which they can apply to compete in international competition, not for Russia, but as a neutral athlete…the council made a rule change to that effect," Rune Andersen from the IAAF said during the press conference.
The IAFF says its full report will be posted on its website in around 20 minutes.
Responding to questions at the press conference, Sebastian Coe from the IAAF ensured that politics did not play a part in the Friday decision to uphold the ban.
Rune Andersen from the IAAF said during a press conference that "RusAF (Russian Athletics Federation) appears unable to enforce all doping bans."
"Under these reinstatement conditions, RusAF must show there is now a culture of zero tolerance towards doping..."
"...Although there has been significant progress...several verification criteria have not been satisfied, in particular the deep-seeded tolerance" of doping, he said.
Russia's two-time Olympic pole vault champion Elena Isinbayeva has said that IAAF's decision to place a ban on Russian athletes over alleged violation of anti-doping rules is “discrimination on national grounds." The sportswoman vowed to appeal to a human rights court.
The IAAF Council's suspension "is a violation of human rights," Isinbayeva told TASS news agency on Friday. "I will not keep silent, I will take measures. I will go to the court of human rights. I will prove IAAF and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that they've made a wrong decision."
Daniil Tsiplakov, 24, a high-jump athlete, told RT that the team's "sole task is to keep training. We are hoping we'll be allowed to the Olympics, we are ready to win."
Tsiplakov has been training for 15 years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied that state-sponsored doping has ever taken place in the country.
"There isn't and cannot be any support on the government level of violations in sport, especially on the question of doping," he said during a visit to St. Petersburg.
He went on to state that clean athletes should not miss the Olympic Games over the poor decisions of teammates.
"There cannot be collective responsibility of all athletes," he said.
"The whole team cannot bear responsibility for one who committed a violation" of anti-doping regulations.
The head of the All-Russia Athletic Federation, Mikhail Butov, has confirmed the ban was upheld.
“I do confirm that the ban has been upheld,” Butov told TASS, without making further comments.
The vote took place in Vienna, where IAAF officials decided that Russia had not fulfilled a set of criteria for the ban to be lifted. That criteria included reforming its anti-doping agency.
The Friday vote follows an initial decision to ban the athletes in November 2015. The athletes were suspended following allegations by the the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which claimed that Russia's athletics and anti-doping bodies had breached anti-doping rules.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has unanimously decided to keep a ban in place for track-and-field athletes ahead of the Rio Olympics, Sky News reported.