It will take a week to decide whether to ban Russia from, or not from the Rio Olympics over “state” doping machine. The International Olympic Committee said today. The question raised over IOC that how to handle its biggest doping scandal. The final verdict could come less than 10 days from the Rio opening ceremony on August 5. The IOC executive decided on Tuesday to wait until after a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling expected Thursday before deciding whether a blanket Olympic ban on Russian competitors should be imposed.
The IOC, which said it needed to study all “legal options”, has now signalled it will take every day possible for one of the most important decisions in Olympic history. “We expect a decision within seven days on the participation of Russian competitors in Rio,” IOC media relations chief Emmanuelle Moreau said.
The IOC has banned Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko and all other ministry officials from the Rio Games and withdrawn backing for international events in Russia over the doping programme revealed by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren this week.
McLaren, who produced a report for the World Anti-Doping Agency, said there was a “state-dictated failsafe system” of drug cheating. IOC president Thomas Bach called Russia’s actions a “shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games.”
WADA has called for Russia to be banned and are believed to have backing from the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan and other nations.
“It’s a complex issue to ban a country, but we’re delighted to see they’re considering it,” New Zealand Olympic Committee secretary-general Kereyn Smith said. Dick Pound, an IOC member, and former WADA president, said it was right for the IOC to take the time to make a decision.
“I do get the impression reading between the lines, however, that the IOC is for some reason very reluctant to think about a total exclusion of the Russians,” he said.
Several national Olympic committees have also voiced support for Russia’s case that it would be wrong to exclude Russian athletes who have not failed drug tests. Italian Olympic committee president Giovanni Malago said athletes were right to complain about Russian drug cheats.
But he said no one can say all Russian athletes are cheats and added: “In the public’s imagination participation in the Olympics is for everyone. So I cannot imagine it without Russia.”
The IOC also ordered a disciplinary commission to look into the sports ministry’s role in the drug cheating that included Russia’s secret service swapping dirty urine samples for clean ones through a hole in a wall at the Sochi Olympics.
The IOC said it will not grant any Rio accreditation “to any official of the Russian Ministry of Sport or any person implicated in the (McLaren) report.”