IOC President Thomas Bach said in a conference call on Wednesday that more Russian Federations could be banned from the Olympics if the most recent round of allegations made by a former Russian anti-doping agency employee were proven true.
Vitaly Stepanov exposed what he claims to be state-sponsored Russian doping in both a 2014 German documentary and a more recent New York Times article that comes as Russia’s anti-doping practices are under extreme international scrutiny.
Bach did not rule out banning more Russian federations, much like the IAAF has already suspended Russian Athletics (track & field, race-walking, etc.) from international competition pending investigations.
“This action could range from lifelong Olympic bans for any implicated person, to tough financial sanctions, to acceptance of suspension or exclusion of entire national federations like the already existing one for the Russian Athletics by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF),” the German said.
Bach also proposed a method by which individual athletes would still be allowed to compete at the Olympics, even if their federation were banned.
“The results of the WADA investigation will also greatly influence the nature of the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympic Games Rio 2016,” Bach said.
“Should there be evidence of an organised system contaminating other sports, the international federations and the IOC would have to make the difficult decision between collective responsibility and individual justice.”
“This could mean that concerned athletes would have to demonstrate that their international and independently proven test record is compliant with the rules of their International Federation and the World Anti-Doping Code,” Bach said.
Several high-profile Russian swimmers have been suspended for doping violations over the last 4 years, including most recently and prominently the world’s fastest breaststroker Yulia Efimova, who has twice tested positive for banned substances. One came in 2013 and landed her a 16-month suspension, while the second came earlier this year when she tested positive for the newly-outlawed substance Meldonium.
Efimova is fighting her latest suspension on the grounds that her latest positive test was under the threshold of 1 microgram per millilitre. WADA has created an allowance for those who tested positive for the substance early this year on the grounds that athletes could have been notified in late 2015 that it was no longer legal, stopped taking it, and still have trace amounts in their system in early 2016.
Meldonium, proving to have been widely used by elite Russian athletes prior to its ban, was originally developed to improve the endurance of Russian soldiers operating in low-atmosphere environments, and has also been marketed as a heart medicine.
Listen to the full press conference here:
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Please could you ban Australia? I just want to see the reaction .Everyone who wins a gold medal spirals down into 10 years of depression anyhow .Then the silver medallists spend 15 years of self recrimation. The Bronzies are usually ok because no one ever threw themselves off a bridge over third ever..
Gina, lay off the Foster’s. You are getting kookier by the minute.
Thorpe Hackett Phelps – alcoholics . These are just the top ones pluz a long lisg of depressives on prescription medications .We have gold medallists who were full ice injecting addicts . Something is very wrong just as the concussion effects in NFA .
You have your concerns re USA swimming , I havd mine about the AOC . They could start with an acknowledgement & a fund .
We need to get away from.the circus or as soon as Rio finishes , they will be out fof the next lot & on it goes .
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Ooo…. Remember when Morozov decided to choose representing Russia internationally instead of the US?.. If they get the boot, ouch…
I wouldn’t be surprised if Morsov himself was doping.
IF he is, it’s not helping. He has not improved since leaving USC.
Didn’t he go with Russia b/c there was some delay in him being able to swim for the US? I thought I remembered something like that.