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Russian track and field athletes prohibited from competing at Olympics
Olympic Games begin on August 5 in Rio de Janeiro
CNN
—
Russia has reacted with anger after its bid to have a ban on its track and field athletes lifted to allow them to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games ended in failure.
The Court for the Arbitration of Sport rejected the appeal made by the Russian Olympic Committee and 67 athletes Thursday, a decision that has led to the country’s sports minister calling for the disbanding of the world’s athletics governing body.
Russia was suspended from track and field events by the International Association of Athletics Federations – known as the IAAF – back in November 2015.
“It’s time to disband the IAAF,” said Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko on Twitter, who also tweeted ‘“Corrupt judges! How can you deprive clean sportsmen of their dream, and what’s more WADA didn’t present either facts or evidence.”
Yelena Isinbayeva – a two-time Olympic pole vault champion, has called on the IOC to have the final say after labeling the verdict as “purely political.”
“Thank you everyone for the funeral of athletics,” she said.
Russian pole vault star Yelena Isinbayeva was one of those appealing the decision.
Michael Steele/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
The IAAF suspension last year came after an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report which uncovered a culture of state-sponsored doping.
“Today’s judgment has created a level playing field for athletes,” said the IAAF in a statement Thursday.
“The CAS award upholds the rights of the IAAF to use its rules for the protection of the sport, to protect clean athletes and support the credibility and integrity of competition.”
Sebastian Coe, president of the IAAF, added: “While we are thankful that our rules and our power to uphold our rules and the anti doping code have been supported, this is not a day for triumphant statements.
“I didn’t come into this sport to stop athletes from competing. It is our federation’s instinctive desire to include, not exclude.
“Beyond Rio the IAAF Taskforce will continue to work with Russia to establish a clean safe environment for its athletes so that its federation and team can return to international recognition and competition.”
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.
FRANCK FIFE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
More than 1,000 Russian athletes across 30 sports -- including football -- benefited from state-sponsored doping, according to the latest report.
ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
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.
JOEL SAGET/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
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."
LUKAS BARTH/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
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.
LUKAS BARTH/AFP/Getty Images
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.
Paul Gilham/Getty Images/file
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."
BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images/file
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.
Getty Images
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."
Robert Cianflone/Getty Images/file
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."
Al Bello/Getty Images/file
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.
Glenn Hunt/Getty Images
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.
Paul Gilham/Getty Images
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."
Andrew Redington/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
Athletics in crisis
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and the organization’s executive board will now meet Sunday to discuss the CAS ruling and decide what sanctions to impose on the remainder of the Russian Olympic association and the country’s athletes.
Kremlin reacts
The Kremlin reacted to the verdict with President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary criticizing the decision to issue a blanket ban on all track and field athletes.
“We believe that the principle of collective responsibility is hardly acceptable,” Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russia’s Tass news agency.
“We are speaking here about field and track athletes, who had been preparing hard for the Olympics, who have nothing to do with doping, who have nothing to do with none of accusations and suspicions, who had regularly been tested by foreign anti-doping agencies.”
“We can only express our deep regret,” he said before adding “our relevant agencies will analyze the situation quickly and efficiently.”
Pole vault star Isinbayeva told TASS: “IOC is entitled to make their own decision. They said it again – looks like rejection, but IOC can decide something on separate athletes. I should say it once again – the final decision will be announced by IOC President Thomas Bach.
“Thank you everyone for the funeral of track and field athletics. This is a purely political order. All arguments are aimed against ARAF and there is nothing concrete against athletes.
“This is not sports but politics,” she added. “But we are athletes without any political skills. Let them rejoice.”
She later added: “There was hope but it was dashed. Let all those pseudo clean foreign athletes breathe a sigh of relief and win their pseudo gold medals in our absence. They always did fear strength.”
Further trouble?
With Russia’s track and field stars having lost their appeal, attention now turns to the entire Olympic team and the IOC’s meeting at the weekend.
The IOC said it would be “exploring legal options” after an independent WADA-commissioned report by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren had found urine samples of Russian athletes had been manipulated across the “vast majority” of Summer and Winter Olympic sports from 2011 through to August 2015.
Russia finished top of the medal table at the Sochi Games two years ago – wining 33 medals, 13 of them gold.
But McLaren concluded that Russia’s “Ministry of Sport directed, controlled and oversaw the manipulation of athlete’s analytical results or sample swapping, with the active participation and assistance of the FSB, CSP and both Moscow and Sochi Laboratories.”
The FSB is Russia’s federal security service while the CSP is involved in the training of Russian athletes.
