FINA and FIG Reject Calls for Blanket Ban on Russia

(ATR) The international swimming and gymnastics federations have joined a chorus of voices from the Olympic Movement dismissing calls for a total ban on Russia from the Rio Games.

The U.S. and Canadian anti-doping agencies are among nearly a dozen NADOs and athlete groups who will call for Russian athletes to be suspended from competing in Rio 2016 if investigator Richard McLaren’s report on Sochi Olympic doping cover-ups points to widespread corruption. The report is out today.

Swimming’s international governing body FINA expressed concern at "premature calls" from US and Canadian anti-doping authorities to ban Russia from the Rio Olympics before the report’s release. "FINA is also concerned that there has been a drive behind the scenes, led by the WADA Athletes Commission Chair, to get a global coalition of support from selected organisations in the Olympic Movement to support the call for the total ban on Russia," the federation said in a statement.

"Such breaches of confidentiality and the perception of a breach of independence of the report undermine its credibility."

But WADA president Craig Reedie, speaking to ATR just hours before the bombshell report is due out, said: "When people read the report they will understand that it has not been compromised."

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) echoed FINA’s concerns in a statement on Monday about the "increasing number of officials asking for a blanket ban of Russian athletes" to participate in Rio. FIG said not all Russian athletes of all sports should be banned and found guilty for actions in other sports and federations. FIG said the country's gymnasts had been subject to controls "equal to those of our other leading gymnastics federations. Clean Russian gymnasts must therefore be allowed to compete at the Games".

"The rights of every individual athlete must be respected," said FIG president Bruno Grandi. "Participation at the Olympic Games is the highest goal of athletes who often sacrifice their entire youth to this aim. The right to participate at the Games cannot be stolen from an athlete, who has duly qualified and has not been found guiltyof doping. Blanket bans have never been and will never be just."

Pat Hickey, IOC executive board member and head of the European Olympic Committees, said on Sunday that McLaren’s report was being undermined. A leaked draft letter from the group of anti-doping agencies and emails being circulated by WADA’s Athlete Committee chair Beckie Scott were interfering "the integrity of fair and due legal process," he said.Senior EOC executives joined Hickey in criticizing those demanding a complete Russia ban from the Rio Games.

Zlatko Matesa, president of the Croatian NOC, "It seems incredible that important members of the Olympic Movement are seeking to build a global coalition to get another National Olympic Committee banned even before the requisite evidence has been published. This is not in the Olympic spirit and casts a shadow over the integrity of the McLaren report."

Spyros Capralos, president of the Greece NOC, said it was "very disappointing to see prominent Olympic stakeholders attempting to get another family member banned from the Olympic Games in this rather underhand way".

"The real victims of all of this will be athletes from all the nations who are seeking fair but universal competition," he said.

Indian Olympic Committee president N Ramachandran said he was "puzzled" that McLaren’s report was "being used by individuals and organizations for their own purposes and benefits, specifically targeting the exclusion of clean Russian athletes in the Rio Olympic Games".

"We vehemently support the legal rights of the clean athletes to participate in the Olympic Games and the right of the [Russian] NOC to register clean athletes in the Rio Games," he said in a statement on Monday.

The IOC will face intense pressure to take action if McLaren's report is as damning about state-supported doping in Russia as reports suggest.The Russian athletics team is already banned from participating at the Rio Games following the IAAF’s decision to uphold its November ban after a WADA report exposed systematic doping.

Details of the Sochi doping probe will be released at 09:00 EST, with McLaren holding a press conference in Toronto.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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