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Russian track and field athletes seem unlikely to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games after their ban from international competition was extended on Friday, with damning accusations made about the country’s lack of anti-doping efforts.
The International Association of Athletics Federations council met in Vienna to discuss lifting the suspension, but made a “unanimous” decision that Russia had not met its requirements in tackling the country’s doping problem.
“Although significant progress has been made, several important criteria were not satisfied,” Rune Andersen, head of the IAAF’s independent task force, told reporters.
“The deep-seated culture of tolerance of doping appears not to have been changed materially. The head coach of Russian athletics and many athletes appear unwilling to acknowledge extent of the doping problem and ignore the anti-doping rules.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) new report is the latest twist to hit the Russian doping scandal, building on Professor Richard Mclaren's initial findings, published in July, which concluded doping was widespread among Russian athletes.
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More than 1,000 Russian athletes across 30 sports -- including football -- benefited from state-sponsored doping, according to the latest report.
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The doping program, across summer, winter and Paralympic sports, was in operation from 2011 to 2015, said Mr McLaren, who presented his latest findings at a news conference in London Friday.
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WADA's initial report on alleged widespread drug use in international athletics concluded that senior figures including IAAF president Sebastian Coe (pictured) "could not have been unaware of the extent of doping."
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Former WADA president Dick Pound chaired a press conference held in Munich on January 14, 2016 to present the 89-page report. It said "corruption was embedded" and "cannot be blamed on a small number of miscreants" within the IAAF.
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A report by the IAAF's ethics committee claims a powerful trio blackmailed Russian distance runner Lilya Shobukhova into paying them off to keep results of her positive drug tests secret.
Russia's former athletics president Valentin Balakhnichev, its ex-chief coach for long-distance athletes Alexei Melnikov and former IAAF consultant Papa Massata Diack have all been banned for life. The report said "far from supporting the anti-doping regime, they subverted it." The IAAF's former anti-doping director Gabriel Dollé has been given a five-year ban.
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The report claims Balakhnichev, Melnikov and Papa Massata Diack "conspired together ... to conceal for more than three years anti-doping violations by an athlete at what appeared to be the highest pinnacle of her sport. All three compounded the vice of what they did by conspiring to extort what were in substance bribes from Shobukhova by acts of blackmail."
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Pound produced an independent report in November 2015 which detailed systemic doping in Russia along with an establishment effort to cover it up. He recommended Russia be banned from athletic competition, which it duly was by the IAAF.
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The findings uncovered a "deeply-rooted culture of cheating at all levels" within Russian athletics. Asked if it amounted to state-sponsored doping, Pound told reporters: "In the sense of consenting to it, there's no other conclusion."
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The report suggested the London 2012 Olympics -- in which Russia won 24 gold medals and finished fourth -- was "in a sense, sabotaged by the admission of athletes who should have not been competing."
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Pound's report detailed "corruption and bribery practices at the highest levels of international athletics," evidence of which has been given to international crime-fighting organization Interpol for further investigation.
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Senegal's Lamine Diack, former president of the IAAF, is being investigated by French police over claims he accepted bribes to defer sanctions against drug cheats from Russia. French prosecutors claim he took "more than €1 million ($1M)" for his silence. Diack has yet to comment.
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Coe, a former Olympic gold medalist, has come under fire for his praise for predecessor Diack, whom he called the sport's "spiritual leader" when he took over the role in August 2015. He told CNN he would "do anything to fix our sport."
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Athletics in crisis
The Norwegian’s task force also found that Russia has still not created “a strong and effective anti-doping infrastructure capable of detecting and deterring doping.”
It also reported that Russian authorities had “orchestrated systematic doping and the covering up of adverse analytical findings.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will meet next Tuesday to decide whether to uphold the IAAF’s decision, which will determine if Russia’s track and field team can compete in Rio in August.
“We now appeal to the members of the (IOC) 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,” said the Russian Ministry of Sport, which added that it was “extremely disappointed by the IAAF ruling.
IAAF president Sebastian Coe said the decision was made “in the best interests of the sport.”
“We have to make sure that for generations to come, that athletes are competing, the public have confidence in what they’re watching, and that we have athletes in safe and secure systems,” Britain’s two-time Olympic gold medalist told CNN’s Amanda Davies in Vienna.
The IAAF said it has brought in a new rule which will allow Russian athletes who have been training in other countries under more rigorous anti-doping regimes to appeal to compete at the Olympics as independent entries.
“It is possible that there are athletes who are not tainted under the Russian system … the doping review board will make an assessment,” Coe told reporters.
Andersen said any Russian athlete who has made an “extraordinary effort” to fight doping – such as whistleblower Yulia Stepanova – could also apply to compete as an independent.
Before the decision was officially announced by the IAAF, Russian news agency Tass published quotes from athletes unhappy with the ruling, following earlier confirmation by Russian athletics’ secretary general Mikhail Butov.
“I am in shock,” javelin thrower Very Rebrik told Tass. “I will keep getting ready for the Olympics until the very end, no matter what happens, as I am not involved in all of these scandals.”
“This is an unfair decision,” triple jumper Yekaterina Koneva told Tass. “The big question is why they are doing this to Russia.”
Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who won Olympic gold in 2004 and 2008, went even further, saying: “This is a violation of human rights. I will not be silent. I will take measures.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said before the announcement that “there can’t be a collective responsibility for all the athletes or the athletes of a certain federation, if certain individuals have been found using doping. The entire team should not be responsible for those who committed the violation.”
Speaking later at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin added: “Let me emphasize that we have never supported any violations in sports.
“We have never supported that at the state level. And we will never support this. We will never support any doping or any other violations in this area. And we are going to cooperate with all the international organizations in this regard.”
The IAAF issued a provisional ban against Russian track and field athletes from international competition in November on the heels of an explosive report by the World Anti-Doping Agency that detailed what the agency said was widespread doping in Russian athletics.
The report detailed a “deeply rooted culture of cheating at all levels” of Russian athletics and implicated athletes, coaches, doctors, laboratory personnel and government officials.
On Wednesday, WADA released a new report detailing what it said were Russian efforts to obstruct testing, including intimidation from armed federal security agents.
It said Friday it “fully supports” the IAAF decision and is now awaiting the results of its own independent report, which it hopes to release within five days of its submission on July 15.
“It is clear there is a serious need for culture change in Russia within government and among sports leaders, athletes and athlete support personnel,” WADA president Craig Reedie said in a statement.
