The Executive Board of the IOC met today to discuss the findings of the McLaren Report commissioned by WADA to investigate a state-run doping scheme in Russian athletics and has announced, essentially, that they will be looking into those findings further. Yesterday, IOC president Thomas Bach said the committee "will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated." Today, the committee hesitated. The IOC said it will look into the "legal options" of an outright ban of all Russian athletes as opposed to selectively banning known offenders. This whole Russiand oping issue has been on the IOC's plate for some time now, so it's a bit of a head scratcher that it is only now looking into these options, especially considering the Rio Games are less than three weeks away.Part of the wait may be to see how the Court of Arbitration for Sport decides whether the IAAF's recent total ban of Russian athletics is proper, as 68 clean athletes have appealed that suspension. A decision is expected Thursday, and the IOC appears to be waiting to see which way the wind is blowing before making a decision that could turn out to be defeated by another appeal to CAS.Here's how the IOC addressed the total ban at Rio in it's statement:With regard to the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympic Games Rio 2016, the IOC will carefully evaluate the IP Report. It will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice. In this respect, the IOC will have to take the CAS decision on 21 July 2016 concerning the IAAF rules into consideration, as well as the World Anti-Doping Code and the Olympic Charter.As for non-Rio matters, the IOC said it would no longer be organizing and financing events in Russia, or accrediting officials in the Russian Ministry of Sport, or any other person mentioned in the McLaren Report, for Rio. The IOC is also urging all winter sports federations to avoid hosting events in Russia, and "to actively look for alternative organisers." These measures will be in effect until December 31, 2016 and reviewed at that time. It also asked individual international federations to conduct a full inquiry into each Russian National Federation and apply sanctions where appropriate.Finally, the IOC set up a disciplinary commission that is going to reevaluate and reanalyze forensic evidence from each Russian athlete, coach, official, and support staff member that participated in Sochi. The IOC will apply appropriate sanctions based on the commission's findings.[IOC]
Advertisement