FINA has put out a press release announcing that they are reviewing the instructions from the International Olympic Committee regarding Russian participation in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, and that initially 7 members of Russia’s submitted swim team have been withdrawn.
4 of these athletes were withdrawn by the Russian Olympic Committee, and 3 more have been named in the WADA-sanctioned McLaren report, released last week, and named ineligible by FINA.
The Russian water polo, diving, and synchronized swimming teams are not expected to be impacted.
Athletes withdrawn by the ROC:
– Mikhail Dovgalyuk
– Yulia Efimova
– Natalia Lovtcova
– Anastasia Krapivina (Marathon Swimming)
Athletes appearing in the WADA IP Report:
– Nikita Lobintsev
– Vladimir Morozov
– Daria Ustinova
These 7 athletes are the prima facie athletes who will not be competing at the Olympic Games by specific, no-judgement-allowed, rules handed down by the IOC on Sunday with regard to any athletes who have previously faced doping sanction, or any athletes who were named in the McLaren report.
Grigory Tarasevich, who tested positive for the newly-banned substance Meldonium earlier this year, has not been named among the 7 Russians. Whether FINA is still exploring the IOC intent and definition of “sanction,” or if this means that he won’t be suspended, remains to be seen, and little clarity has been provided on that issue by FINA or the IOC to media or the athlete himself.
As for the other 29 pool swimmers remaining on the Russian Olympic roster, FINA says that they have created an ad hoc commission that will investigate the implications of the IOC ruling for the Russian Swimming Federation.
More details to follow. Read the full FINA press release below.
FINA acknowledges and supports the IOC’s position in respect of the participation of clean Russian athletes to the Olympic Games in Rio.
The WADA Independent Person (“McLaren”) report has shown that anti-doping rules, i.e. the FINA Doping Control (DC) Rules and the WADA Code were not correctly implemented in Russia, i.e. within the jurisdiction of the Russian Swimming Federation.
The exact implication for the Russian Swimming Federation is still to be clarified. For this purpose, the matter has been forwarded to an ad hoc commission, which will have to investigate. The Commission will notably have to consider any further information to be received from the continuing IP investigation.
In the meantime, the IP report already clearly establishes that the anti-doping rules were not properly applied and notably that a number of samples collected from swimmers were not correctly reported in accordance with FINA DC Rules.
In this context and as a decision made as an emergency in the context of Rio 2016, and in application of art. C 17.14.8, to protect the integrity of sport and the clean athletes, the FINA Bureau has decided that it will subject the eligibility of Russian athletes to specific additional criteria, such criteria being consistent with the IOC’s requirements published on July 24, 2016:
• First, no athlete corresponding to the samples mentioned in the IP Report will be declared eligible.
• Secondly, every Russian athlete’s entry will be analysed in respect of doping tests conducted either by FINA and/or other NADOs and not analysed in Russia. The FINA Doping Control Review Board will conduct a review and issue a recommendation in respect to whether Russian athletes were subject to a reliable anti-doping scrutiny, for a decision to be made by the FINA Executive.
• FINA has noted the requirement that the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) shall not enter any athlete having been already sanctioned. Accordingly, no such athlete will be declared eligible.
The above measure applies to the Russian Swimming Federation. As an immediate effect of the above mentioned criteria, seven swimmers are not eligible to compete at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games:
Athletes withdrawn by the ROC:
– Mikhail Dovgalyuk
– Yulia Efimova
– Natalia Lovtcova
– Anastasia Krapivina (Marathon Swimming)
Athletes appearing in the WADA IP Report:
– Nikita Lobintsev
– Vladimir Morozov
– Daria Ustinova
There is no indication in the IP report that athletes of Russian Synchronised Swimming Federation, Russian Diving Federation and Russian Water Polo would be implicated (1).
Finally, after the publication of the WADA IP Report, FINA has decided to re-test all the samples of Russian athletes collected at the Kazan 2015 FINA World Championships. After the conclusion of this competition, these samples were transferred and are now stored at the WADA-accredited laboratory of Barcelona (ESP).
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(1) After check, the single case mentioned in the IP report in respect of Water Polo was a case effectively reported and the male athlete was sanctioned. Russia’s Men Water Polo Team is not qualified for Rio.
Also, people can’t only look at the Russians as dopers. Remember, Lane Armstrong admitted he doped. He was not caught. We can’t be sure who is doping and who is. Also, there is no proof that Russians are doping. We don’t have the evidence in front of us. I’m done arguing though.
There is no proof that Russians are doping?
Did you not hear about how IAAF banned the whole Russian track & field because the number of their athletes tested positive has reached 40?
No proof? How about that Russia has the second highest number of swimmers tested positive for banned substances in the past 4 years after Brazil?
Did you not read how Russian FSB agents were swapping positive samples during 2013 universiade and 2014 winter olympiads?
Did you not read the Maclaren report with its conclusive damming findings on state-sponsored and state-financed doping in Russia? Look it up, it’s published on WADA website.
You are done arguing because you have nothing.
You are… Read more »
I’m done talking to brainwashed people. Ok? Thanks.
TUE exemptions post positive US Sweden Sth Africa . .Sweden is sky high considering small population . A There must be a TUE for blonde hairy armpits.
Some nations have 0 TUEs .
I think there should be no medical exemptions .
2 of these swimmers swim at USC… They really need to pay more attention to their swimmers. This is just 2 of many.
For all Vlad’s supporters, here’s some eloquent evidence from one of his interviews to the Russian media back in April 2016.
“- Your coach Viktor Avdienko said that he advised you to stop using meldonium in early 2015 . Is it true ?
– Yes. He told me about meldonium at the beginning of last year, long before it was added to the banned substances list”.
http://www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/899452
P.S. Avdienko mentioned as his coach, because Vlad had repeatedly told Russian media that his work with Dave Salo is insignificant and that he was doing all the main work in Russia…
Of course the Russian coaches knew, and so should have the athletes, that meldonium would be banned.
It was already put on WADA monitoring list in September 2014.
Remember this as evidence against the politically useful excuse that “westerners only accuse Chinese swimmers because they are prejudiced”. People suspect every athlete (fairly or unfairly) from a federation with a history of condoning/protecting/promoting steroid use.
I could be missing something, but I find the complete lack of Russian swimmers speaking up against doping to be very suspicious.
If I had to compete against cheaters to qualify for the olympics, I would be very upset – vocally so.
And are we supposed to believe that drug tests were tampered with at the 2013 universiaide… and the 2014 winter olympics… but they just stopped before the 2015 world championships in kazan?? Did Russian officials have a crisis of conscience just before they were caught????
For 2015 Kazan world championships, the operation of Moscow doping lab was supervised by UK ADA, this was after the first allegation about Russian state-sponsored doping system came up.
I understand the push to withdraw proven dopers, but the supposed reasons for pulling someone like Vlad seem sketchy and it’s pretty upsetting.
Any way we can Vlad can still compete? Can we write letters or something?
Congratulations, IOC! Corrupcy and politics destroyed Valdimir Morozov’s dream. A clean athlete has been banned from the Olympics with no reason.
I agree.
I think if he is really clean, than he will appeal and will be allowed to compete. I think there is a reason why he was banned and i am sure that we will learn more about his situation in the following days.
He might regret until the rest of his life that he joined the Russian team and the Russian coach Avdienko (the great manipulator). However Vlad can still sit a year out and switch his sports citizenship to the country that he originally wanted to compete for. A victim of the ridiculous Russian reality.
Did he get USA citizenship?
I think he received his US citizenship shortly after the 2012 Olympics
Russia does not do dual citizenship.