Russian, Kenyan athletes given strict conditions for Rio Games
Russian and Kenyan athletes will only be allowed to compete at this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro if they meet individual doping tests outside their national agencies, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday.
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it respected last Friday’s decision of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to uphold a ban on the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) for a “systematic and deeply rooted culture of doping”.
The IOC called for individual testing of athletes from Russia and Kenya, both of whose national doping controls were declared inadequate by the IAAF.
“This non-compliance declaration and the substantial allegations related to it put a serious doubt on the presumption of innocence for athletes coming from these countries,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.
“Therefore each athlete coming from these two countries will have to be declared eligible by the respective international federation following an individual procedure and an individual evaluation of the situation.”
Bach said test results of labs considered “tainted” could not be taken into consideration, thereby ruling out athletes screened by national controls in Russia.
IOC makes exception for athletes ‘not tainted’
However, the IOC followed an IAAF recommendation, which stated “individual athletes who can clearly and convincingly show that they are not tainted by the Russian system” could take part in Rio.
“As I understand it, this is meant to apply to athletes who have been training overseas and competing in elite competitions but have been tested by an agency outside of Russia,” says Andy Brown, editor of the London-based Sports Integrity Initiative, which reports on sport’s governing bodies.
“They’ll have to somehow show that they’ve been tested by agencies outside of Russia and that those tests are secure, approved and, to use the IAAF’s words, they have not been tainted by the Russian systemic doping that appears to have occurred.”
The IOC also emphasised the ban applied to the RusAF and that athletes passing international tests could still compete as part of the Russian Olympics Committee, meaning they can still compete under the Russian flag.
Russia denounces ‘repression’ of athletes
Russian officials reacted to the ban and to the IOC meeting angrily before, during and after the announcement.
Russia’s parliament said the ban amounted to “using sport as an instrument in a political battle” and complained of “repressions against competitors never implicated in unfair game”.
The RusAF has appealed the ban and Moscow’s Olympic chief Aleksander Zhukov, who attended the IOC meeting, said his team might consider suing the IAAF.
“It’s both a difficulty for the athletes and a blow to their foreign policy, their involvement, and for their soft power,” says Fabien Ohl, a professor of sociology specialising in sports at the University of Lausanne. “They wanted to be very involved in sports to show Russia is an important country.”
But Ohl adds that Moscow’s complaints of a politically motivated ban do not hold water.
“In most of the doping cases when you are accused, you present yourself as a victim,” says Ohl. “You cannot deny that part of the political power game is expressed in sports but they also failed in organising anti-doping and in some corruption cases, so they’re not just victims. The political issues alone cannot explain this ban of Russian teams.”
The IOC also said anti-doping efforts should target coaches, officials and doctors as well as athletes and called on the World Anti-Doping Agency to organise a summit on how to improve anti-doping efforts for all of international sports in 2017.
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