IOC Faces First Test in Protecting Clean Athletes

(ATR) It’s time for the IOC to put its money where its mouth is…

On Tuesday the IOC will convene with Olympic stakeholders to determine if there is a path forward for clean Russian track and field athletes to compete at Rio 2016 and to review the cases of countries that are non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency code.

Around the Rings has learned the Olympic Summit in Lausanne will bring together IOC executives such as Thomas Bach, Pat Hickey, C.K. Wu, Rene Fasel, Claudia Bokel and Ugur Erdener. Officials from federations such as football, track and field and gymnastics as well as NOC leaders from Russia, China and the United States will join the IOC in the Olympic capital. ANOC president Sheikh Ahmad and FINA president Julio Maglione are expected to join the meeting via conference call.

Although the IOC has offered support for the decision by the IAAF to suspend the Russian track and field federation (ARAF), it could seek to create a precedent-setting method that allows Russian track and field athletes to compete at the upcoming Games this August.

By creating a pathway for Russian athletes that have not doped, Bach would solidify the IOC's commitment to protecting clean athletes. This is the first test for the IOC to implement the attitude and culture change it sought to bring to the battle against doping cheats with the creation of Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms in December 2014.

IAAF Taskforce chair Rune Andersen admitted after Friday’s decision that there was a "very tiny crack in the door" for Russian athletes to compete at the Games. He suggested allowing Russian athletes who have proven themselves to be clean through a testing program outside of Russia or those who helped uncover the wide-reaching doping scandal to participate in the Games under the neutral IOC flag.

Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said that allowing whistleblowers such as 800m runner Yulia Stepanova to compete at the Games would be "absurd". Stepanova has been deemed a "courageous athlete" by WADA for her efforts to help uncover the doping scandal. The sports ministry is pleading with the IOC to not support the extreme punishment handed down by the IAAF.

"We now appeal to the members of the International Olympic Committee to not only consider the impact that our athletes’ exclusion will have on their dreams and the people of Russia, but also that the Olympics themselves will be diminished by their absence," Russia’s sports ministry said in a statement.

Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov expressed his frustration with the IAAF decision last Friday and says "clean athletes should not be punished for the misdeeds of others."

"I consider the IAAF Council's decision unfair on the vast majority of athletes who have never doped, have not violated any criteria, have had dozens of samples checked by independent authorities and have fought honestly for the right to compete at international competitions," Zhukov said in a statement.

Russian Parliament members Konstantin Kosachev and Sergei Naryshkin disagree with the IAAF decision and say a resolution to combat it will be drafted by lawmakers on Tuesday.

"The war on that side is of a very dirty, illegal and unfair character in regard to athletes hit by it and unfair towards the country that they represent," Kosachev said. "We are not waging this war; this war has been apparently declared against us."

Russian track and field athletes are not going down without a fight, either. On Sunday, race walkers Denis Nizhegorodov and Svetlana Vasilyeva filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport arguing that a ban of the entire team is unfair punishment.

"Now they want to take away my chance to compete at the Olympics, even though I haven't done anything to cost me a place in Rio," Vasilyeva said. "From bitter experience I understand that you can't wait and hope for a good result, you have to act."

They also do not support a measure where clean Russians can still compete in Rio under the IOC flag.

"I'm a citizen of Russia, a great sports power," says Nizhegorodov. "I don't agree with competing under the Olympic flag."

Written by Kevin Nutley

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