“Enough is enough:” Edwin Moses says Russia and Belarus should be banned from Paris 2024 and Milano-Cortina 2026

International sports bans on Russia and Belarus should extend through the next two Olympic Games, hurdling legend Edwin Moses tells Around the Rings.

“One summer and one winter – to start,” Moses said. “It’s got to be some teeth to start.”

Moses said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should announce “immediately” that the two countries must sit out Paris 2024 and Milano-Cortina 2026 in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine as well as ongoing doping scandals.

“I’ve been dealing with Russia since 1989,” said Moses, the emeritus chair of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency who was part of the first agreement between the United States and the former Soviet Union to conduct out-of-competition tests on each other’s athletes. “They don’t respond to weak, timid threats or sanctions. They roll over you -- and that’s what’s continuing to happen. They’ve been rolling over the Olympic community since 2014.”

The Kamila Valieva doping case, which rocked the figure skating events at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games, is just the latest chapter. Revelations about a state-sponsored doping program at the 2014 Sochi Games led the IOC to ban Russia as a nation from future Games. However, athletes were allowed to compete under team names such as Olympic Athletes from Russia and Russian Olympic Committee with neutral flags and anthems.

“The argument was we can’t take it out on innocent athletes,” said Moses, who won two Olympic gold medals and one bronze between 1976 and 1988. “Those sanctions have not worked. The fact is -- and the athletes all know it -- essentially the Russians are there, so nothing has really happened. The bans had no effect, particularly for the athletes, because they still have to compete against these people and it’s just to the point where you’ve got to cut off the head of the snake.”

Moses knows what it’s like to miss an Olympic Games because of international politics. He was Olympic champion in 1976 and 1984 in the 400-meter hurdles and was the overwhelming favorite to win again in 1980 before the U.S.-led boycott of the Moscow Games denied him the opportunity to compete. But Moses said “severe consequences,” even if that means athletes are collateral damage and cannot compete, are essential in order to bring change.

“Enough is enough,” said Moses. “It just goes on and on and on -- they’re still taking away medals from Russian athletes from 2012 and 2016 (when doping samples are re-tested) and it’s just a slap in the face in the face to everyone in the Movement.

“I’m just personally disgusted that the IOC and the international federations have let it go for so long without doing something that could be of consequence to the Russians to help them change their behavior.”

And Moses said Belarus also deserves a ban for its role in assisting Russia in the invasion and for doping improprieties that are evident “if you look closely.”

As part of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) executive committee, Moses had a front-row seat for the investigation surrounding the 2014 Games. When the penalties were finally announced, he said, “I just thought it was a weak response to events that really circumvented the entire ethics of the Olympic Games in 2014. I thought that was a gut punch.

“To me as an athlete, having an Olympic legacy, to see that kind of behavior by an entire nation and the machine that goes beyond that was just a travesty.”

He said proof that the penalties were not severe enough has been the subsequent positive doping results.

Moses said the IOC should also be spurred to act because Russia broke the Olympic Truce by invading Ukraine on February 24.

“When I was an athletes’ commission member,” he said, “that was a major part of the Olympic program under Juan Antonio Samaranch and Jacques Rogge. “People had respect for that. Now there’s just no respect.”

While Moses said he does not think a ban will “make any personal difference” to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, he said he knows people within the country’s athletic system “are fed up as well.”

He said he and U.S. Anti-Doping chief Travis Tygart have spoken to the federation and Russian anti-doping officials who “think that the system is broken and that they have no choice. It’s not like all the athletes are a part of it or want to be a part of it. The coercive effect is the thing that really bothers me the most and the fact that there’s no sanctions coming from above.”

Earlier this week, Swiss Aquatics announced that it will not compete in the upcoming FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary if Russia and Belarus are entered. Swiss Aquatics polled athletes and officials before making the decision.

“They’re willing to make that sacrifice,” Moses said. “It’s time for heads to roll. It’s time for athletes and federations to really step forward and say, ‘No longer.’

“The Russians have been on the ropes, doing the rope-a-dope, for eight years now. They can still come off the ropes and throw blows, and it’s just not working. The whole system is broken.”