Russia’s track & field federation faces a potential ban from the Rio 2016 Olympics, but the Russian Sports Minister and a two-time Olympic pole vault champion have publicly criticized the ban, with the athlete mulling a discrimination lawsuit.
The Russian athletics federation is currently suspended from international competition after a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report alleged a massive, state-sponsored doping system within the sport. The Guardian reports that the international athletics federation will decide whether to lift the ban in time for the Rio Olympics on June 17.
Yelena Isinbayeva was the Olympic pole vault champion in 2004 and 2008, and took the bronze medal in 2012. She’s also the world record-holder in the event, and would compete in her fifth Olympic Games this summer if she is able to compete in Rio.
She told The Guardian that a ban of the entire Russian athletics federation punishes her and other clean Russian athletes for the mistakes of others.
“I really hope this will be positively sorted out: I deserve it, it’s my right,” Isinbayeva said in The Guardian‘s report. “All of our young, talented, clean athletes deserve it, too. If they miss Rio, four years is a long time.”
Isinbayeva, who says she’s passed anti-doping tests around the world over her career, framed the federation ban as making some athletes pay for the transgressions of others.
“I am mad [about the ban],” she told The Guardian. “How would you feel? This is my chance to win a third Olympic gold and write another chapter in my story but I am being asked to pay for the mistakes of others.
“There is so much negativity about Russia at the moment but doping isn’t just a Russian problem. Athletes from America, Jamaica and lots of other countries have failed tests and come back two years later. Only in Russia is the entire team banned. It’s a violation of my human rights.”
Isinbayeva says she will “personally file a discrimination lawsuit at the court of human rights” if the federation ban isn’t lifted.
Meanwhile state-run Russian news agency TASS reports that the Russian Sports Minister has also spoken out against the ban. Vitaly Mutko told reporters this week that the ban would bring the Olympics back to the time when nations would boycott the Games for political reasons.
“If the whole team is suspended from participation in the Olympic Games, then this will return everything to the time when there were boycotts,” Mutko said in the TASS story. “I want to stress that the state has never supported people using doping.”
I’m at the point now where I assume there are no clean Russian track and field Olympians, only ones who have not been popped positive yet.
Sorry Yelena, this is so overbroad and systemic that the IOC and WADA absolutely had to act. Nobody’s human rights are being violated here.
US track and field had almost everyone’s test come back positive on a 100/200 in the last 32 years (or being covered up), nobody here is talking about, whole team banned from Olympics
Yeah but the difference is US athletes get caught
The list is there .USA has very very few positives in any one year that garner a suspension . Most of these are minor offences & 80% are by low level athletes. I just looked at 2014 & only 34 for the whole nation for the 7000 samples taken . which is less than the global 1.3% positive (itself poor) AND less tests than done for similar nations 1/15 of their population .
Something is rotten in Denmark or you guys are just wonderfully honest & GOOOOOOOD at sports.
Make that 1/5 of the population e.g. France & Italy who did 7000 plus . Results wise USA got fewer positives than Australia which has the 1/15 of population .
I see Isinbayeva’s managed to escape the mental asylum.
The Olympics may be about athlete’s but they’re for countries. You don’t walk out there with your own flag to your own national anthem that you came up with about how great you are. If an entire nation is not only complacent, but supportive in violating the rules of competition, aka. cheating, then YES you go down with that ship.
In bad timing for the Russian case, Russian media sources have apparently identified about half the 31 possible doping violations from the Beijing retests as Russian athletes, including 10 track &field athletes. So much for any ‘it wasn’t systematic’ arguments.
Given IAAF’s recent record in medal reallocation, look for more airport food courts across the globe to become the scenes of impromptu medal ceremonies.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha………………