John Coates branded Russia ‘rotten to the core’ so how have they been allowed to compete at Rio?

FIVE weeks ago IOC vice-president John Coates tore into Russia as he handed Jared Tallent his gold medal from London 2012. So the IOC deciding not to ban all athletes was staggering on many levels.

President John Coates called the Russians ‘rotten to the core’ last month

JOHN Coates is clearly an each-way punter.

Five weeks ago the International Olympic Committee vice-president stood in the Melbourne rain and tore into the Russians as he handed over the 50km walk gold medal from the 2012 London Games to Jared Tallent.

“Presenting an Olympic medal is always an honour, but more so on this occasion to be part of rectifying, in some way, the massive injustice perpetrated on Jared by a doping cheat and aided by a Russian Anti-Doping Agency and Russian Athletics Federation that were rotten to the core,” Coates said.

They were strong, direct and forceful words which put a smile on the face of the couple of hundred fans who’d braved the chilly conditions to support their man who had been dudded.

So when the push was on to have Russia completely punted from the Rio Games, following the lead of the IAAF who’d turfed their track and field team, we were pretty sure where our man Coatesy stood.

Jared Tallent and John Coates shortly after the medal presentation last month

Well, at least we thought we knew.

The IOC’s embarrassing cop-out of not banning all Russian athletes was staggering on many levels.

And in the middle of it was the president of Australia’s Olympic Committee in his role as the chair of the IOC Legal Affairs Commission.

Coatesy was suddenly singing a different tune.

“We were mindful of the need for justice for clean athletes, we did not want to penalise athletes who are clean with a collective ban and therefore keeping them out of the Games,” he said in a statement released by the AOC.

Russia and the word clean don’t go.

Just ask WADA who haven’t done just one report, they’ve got two which are loaded with examples of mass cheating across all sports — not just track and field — which had been organised and celebrated by government.

Jared Tallent was awarded gold almost four years after competing because of a Russian doper

So while the IOC sat back and applauded the work of the track and field governing body for having the fortitude to make a statement, when it was their turn they ducked, dived and essentially made a fool of themselves.

Their reasoning was they didn’t want to deprive a poor old Russian athlete who may have played by the rules. Given the evidence, it’s fair to say they would be in the minority.

The IAAF were faced with the same dilemma but made the right call in that there is always collateral damage in these situations but for the good of sport and the Rio Games the hard decision had to be made.

So now what do we do with Rio?

These Games were already on the nose thanks to a build-up focused on the Zika virus, security concerns and the large number of athletes pulling out.

And now the IOC wants the public to believe that everything they see in those couple of weeks is produced by a clean living athlete who has got there through hard work and determination.

That’s a hard sell at the best of times yet now they want us to believe that some of them even come from Russia.

Originally published as John Coates branded Russia ‘rotten to the core’ so how have they been allowed to compete at Rio?