(ATR) The Canadian Olympic Committee makes another appeal to the IOC for "immediate and meaningful sanctions" against Russia as Vladimir Putin claims the United States is pressuring the IOC to ban his country from PyeongChang.
The COC said that while it appreciates the work being done by the two IOC commissions investigating the findings of the McLaren Report on Russia’s systemic state-sponsored doping, there needs to be a backup plan in place.
"If the conclusions from the commissions are not imminent, we ask that provisionary measures be taken, including suspensions, to safeguard the integrity of the Olympic Winter Games, now only 112 days away," said COC President Tricia Smith in a statement on Thursday.
The COC’s call came on the same day that Putin made his comments at a forum in Sochi.
"We are seeing that the IOC is under strong pressure," Putin is quoted by Reuters as saying. "It relies on advertisers, television channels, sponsors, and so on. And these sponsors are receiving unambiguous signals from certain American institutions."
Denis Oswald is the head of the IOC commission reviewing 28 cases of athletes who competed in Sochi. He said in a letter to IOC Athletes Commission chair Angela Ruggiero this week that the priority is being given to those athletes looking to compete in PyeongChang. Oswald plans to have the hearings completed by the end of November.
While Oswald’s committee will determine whether doping was involved in each case, it will leave punishment of the guilty athletes to the respective sports federations.
The IOC did the same thing ahead of the Rio Olympics last year. About 300 Russians ended up taking part in the Summer Games.
The other IOC commission, led by Samuel Schmid, is looking into the Russian doping scandal on a broader level which includes the results of the Oswald Commission.
IOC President Thomas Bach, in a letter this week to members of the Olympic Movement, did not give a specific timeline on Schmid’s work but reiterated his hope that "the IOC Executive Board will still be able to take a decision this year because none of us wants this serious issue to overshadow" the PyeongChang Games.
The COC’s call for provisional measures appears to show that there are some in the Olympic Movement that doubt the IOC will complete the work in time.
"Sport can only continue to have integrity when everyone plays by the same rules, which cannot take place when certain nations engage in flagrant state-sponsored doping; there can be no outliers to this principle," said COC chief executive and secretary general Chris Overholt.
"It is the opinion of the COC that the IOC, all National Olympic Committees and International Federations must send a strong message to nations around the world that this is the start of a new, clean, sustainable future for international sport."
The COC is trying to do its part, hosting an Ethical Sport Symposium in Calgary on Nov. 24 to facilitate a broader discussion on anti-doping.
Written by Gerard Farek
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