Coventry and Salnikov Make Strange Bedfellows in Olympic Awards Ceremony

2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES

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• Swimming: August 6-13
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In tonight’s medal ceremony for the men’s 4×100 medley relay at the 2016 FINA Olympic Games, an interesting duo was handing out the awards. Kirsty Coventry, an athlete representative for WADA and the IOC who competed for Zimbabwe at these Games, was paired with Vladimir Salnikov, head of the Russian Swimming Federation, in tonight’s medal ceremony.

Coventry, a 5-time Olympian, has played an active role in the push for more Anti-Doping measures. An Olympic gold medalist at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics in the 200 back, Coventry has been very vocal about wanting to feel confident that she’s competing in a sport with a level playing field. In tonight’s cerremony, she handed out the medals.

Coventry is currently an athlete representative for both the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Intenational Olympic Committee (IOC). After allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia began to surface, Coventry spoke out, saying she had no confidence that there would be fair competition in Rio.

It was an awkward pairing in tonight’s ceremony, as Salnikov played his role as a member of FINA. He handed out the athletes’ gifts (representations of the logo and medal holder) to the medal-winning teams. But Salnikov is also the head of the Russian Federation, around whom FINA has been very supportive throughout all of the doping scandals.

Russia has come under fire after the recent release of the McLaren Report, which confirmed state-sponsored doping in Russia. FINA, however, has been supportive towards the Russians throughout the ordeal. Before the release of the McLaren Report, FINA criticized any premature judgment of the situation in Russia, and took a run at WADA themselves.

“FINA is also concerned that there has been a drive behind the scenes, led by the WADA Athletes Commission Chair, to get a global coalition of support from selected organisations in the Olympic Movement to support the call for the total ban on Russia. Again, all of this is based on the findings of the McLaren Report which is meant to have been independent and confidential.”

When the findings of the McLaren report were released, FINA responded, saying the McLaren Commission exceeded its powers in their investigation into widespread doping.

Given the tension that’s come from this situation, coupled with the tensions in Rio between athletes on the issues with doping in the sport, it was an interesting choice to pair Coventry and Salnikov in the medal ceremony together.