AOC and Jared Tallent hail IAAF decision to ban Russia from Rio 2016 but warn Games won’t be clean

DESPITE competition bans against Russian track and field athletes, Australian sports chiefs believe competitors in other sports will be drug cheats at Rio.

Jared Tallent has welcomed the decision to ban Russian athletes from Rio

DESPITE competition bans against Russian track and field athletes at the upcoming Olympics, Australian sports chiefs believe competitors in other sports and potentially from other nations will be drug cheats at Rio.

“Is it going to be 100 per cent clean in Rio, no, it’s not going to be,” Australian Olympic Team chef de mission Kitty Chiller said today.

“There’s evidence and proof of doping in a wide range of sports.”

Given the Summer games are just 48 days away there is a real chance some medal winners in Rio de Janeiro will be found retrospectively to be cheats and more medals could be stripped.

But Ms Chiller said the decisive move against the Russians showed that “cheats will not get away with it” under expanded drug testing requirements.

Tallent, Coates and Chiller fronted the media in melbourne this morning

“The Australian Olympic Committee welcomes the decision of the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) overnight to maintain its suspension of the Russian Athletics Federation,” Australian Olympic Committee chief executive and International Olympic Committee vice president John Coates said.

But Mr Coates also warned of further drugs cheats to be outed, nominating other former Soviet bloc nations with a cloud over their performance tactics and said it was likely more sporting federations may yet be banned from the Olympics in August.

Russia was suspended from track and field by the IAAF in November after an independent report from the World Anti-Doping Agency uncovered widespread state-sponsored doping.

Last Wednesday, a new WADA report revealed 52 failed tests since then and found evidence of Russian officials attempting to obstruct, cover-up and intimidate drug testers.

“There are reportedly many weightlifters (among the 52) who tested positive from retesting in Beijing and London and the International Weightlifting Federation has to look at that in the first instance and there maybe other countries,” Mr Coates said.

He said there were reports of failed tests with Kazakhstan athletes and other former Soviet republics.

Jared Tallent Medal PresentationIPTCCountryNameKey

“Overnight I also read of allegations in respect of Russian swimming so FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) will no doubt be looking at that.”

Russia may still field athletes where they can prove themselves clean of banned drugs, but only compete under a “neutral” flag, rather than their national flag.

Mr Coates said in order to prove they are clean, there were “high hurdles” and testing had to be conducted outside of Russia.

One Russian athlete has already threatened to appeal to European courts on a human rights basis if she is not given the chance to compete in Brazil.

“I’m very much looking towards racing in Rio with other clean athletes and seeing who is the best out of those guys,” said distance walker Jared Tallent, awarded a gold medal this week after a Russian drug cheat was stripped of his medal from the London games.

“More needs to be done in doping, the IAAF needs to spend more money, more testing needs to be done and that’s just the way it is.

“But this is a great step not to have Russia there (in Rio).”

He said up to five Russian medals in the walking events had subsequently been found to have been wrongfully won by drug cheats.

Originally published as AOC and Jared Tallent hail IAAF decision to ban Russia from Rio 2016 but warn Games won’t be clean