Editor’s Note: Those in the western hemisphere might be confused by the term “athletics,” which is used internationally to mean track & field, road racing, and race-walking in combination, not all of the nation’s sports.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the world’s governing body for track, field, road racing, and race-walking events and equivalent of FINA, has upheld their suspension of the Russian Athletics Federation through the Rio Olympic Games/
Announced in a press conference (which will be watchable here after the live stream is turned off), the federation says that it will uphold the Russian federation’s suspension from international competition that has been in place since November 2015, which means that the federation in whole will be ineligible to send athletes to the Rio Olympics. The suspension relates to several reports outlining a number of Russian doping violations and fraud intended to circumvent doping controls.
There was a loophole left for a possible inclusion of some Russian athletes, which is a scenario that has been hinted at for a while. The IOC has announced a “summit” next week in Lausanne, where they will gather with other federations and determine if individual athletes “should be given individual justice.” The likely outcome would be that an athlete would have to definitively prove innocence of doping by some standard (as compared to the opposite) to participate in the Olympics.
Possible standards discussed include requiring athletes to show that they have been available and participated at a high level in international doping controls.
The IAAF decision comes the day after another WADA report declared that, among other irregularities, over 800 doping tests were missed by Russian athletes across all sports in a recent 6 month period.
New allegations have also come out about swimmers, specifically, being able to buy their way out of the Russian testing pool, and FINA has released a statement on the many allegations this morning.
Running around tracks & throwing stuff & running down roads & barriers & puddles have been done forever & there are no technical improvements . The only improvements are through PEDs.
Seb Coe stated the very existence of athletics is in doubt because the fan base -that turns up at events -is 55 years & over . I think they are only going now so as to maybe get the good word on what works or even some samples.
Has anyone stopped to think about all these ageing sport officials . My bet is they are all on the latest themselves . It happens , they start with viagra & then the anti ageing ‘supplements ” & with… Read more »
To be more precise, I understand the decision of suspension of the Russian athetics federation which has clearly organized a doping system for many years. But the clean athletes who have nothing to hide should be allowed to compete. And I’m pleased to see they plan that.
Bobo you make a good point. This is a tough decision to make. On the flip side though, if you want to see clean athletes compete against each other, this may be an important first step in sending a message of the consequences of doping. Totally unfair to the clean Russian athletes. However, for far too long, cheaters have gotten away with doping with little to no consequence. Maybe a statement like this will change their minds in the future.
For too long, the IAAF and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) have either buried their heads in the sand about, or turned a blind eye to, inadequate or corrupt anti-doping testing at certain labs around the world. WADA ‘accredited’ those labs so had a duty of care to verify that standards were maintained. As soon as WADA had lost confidence in RUSADA (Russian Anti-Doping Agency) and the Russian testing labs, they should have suspended their accreditation and mandated all Russian athletes be tested directly under the control of WADA.
I don’t agree with banning all Russian athletes because some have broken the rules. I don’t expect to go to jail for someone else’s crime.
Preventing clean qualifying athletes from competing potentially… Read more »
Bobo, when doping in Russia is such a state-assisted, systemic doping, then how do you ensure one athlete is clean?
The ban is punishment for systematic and long-term cheating organized by the authorities, including the “antidoping” authorities. Such punishment will give them more incentive to behave and the indications are that they are not yet behaving. Furthermore, their testing over the last year is such that there is no reliability that any athletes are clean.
I’m the first to say zero tolerance for cheaters. I’m even in favor of a lifetime ban from the first positive test for all products. Because it has allowed you to train harder or to take power artificially so you will benefit all your career from doping.
But I disagree with a suspension for an entire federation or an entire country.
It’s just totally unfair to forbid clean athletes to compete because of cheating from others. Even if it looks a little like a state doping in that case. But not all Russians are doped.
It’s not a good thing for the fan of sports too. I want to see the best compete against each other. And a… Read more »
Bobo, at the level those decisions are taken, private bank accounts in Switzerland dwarf what most athletes (bar Phelps and Bolt maybe) could even dream to accumulate in their lifetime. Those orgs care nothing that an athlete doped. They care that the public opinion will not watch the show if they aren’t perceived as doing something against doping, which would seriously dent their revenue, and Russian athletes probably did cheat, but they are also a convenient scapegoat, because they’re visible and wouldn’t cause a drop in revenue. National Federations are the poor ones really, squeezed between those tartuffe moralists and the need to perform. On the form the ban looks perfectly ok. It’s a bit too easy when you have… Read more »
Hopefully FINA grows a pair….and some spine
This is a good first step.