Russians game Winter Games

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has good reason to be “furious” with the Court of Arbitration for Sport headed by Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates. The court’s decision to lift life bans imposed on 28 of the 43 Russian athletes and coaches sanctioned for their involvement in the outrageous doping scandal at Vladimir Putin’s Sochi Winter Games four years ago makes a mockery of the battle against drugs in sport and, as Mr Bach says, destroys its credibility.

With the Games at PyeongChang, in South Korea, starting this week, it is imperative the IOC ensures the “unbanned” athletes and coaches are allowed nowhere near the events. The World Anti-Doping Agency, in the front line of the fight against drugs in sport, has rightly spoken of “dismay and frustration” among athletes over the court’s ruling. The trouble is that while Mr Bach is now huffing and puffing about the decision of the Coates court, the IOC has not shown the fibre needed in the wake of Sochi. Theoretically, Russia is banned from PyeongChang. But that is only if you count the Russian flag and anthem.

Russia will have the third-largest team of 169 athletes at the Games, competing under an IOC-sanctioned flag of convenience, “Olympic Athletes from Russia”. Many helped Mr Putin crookedly lift Russia from finishing 11th at Vancouver in 2010 to an unlikely (without cheating) first place at Sochi, a “success” that delighted the Russian leader, who had invested a staggering $US50 billion in putting on the Games.

Mr Putin is triumphant about the unbanning, claiming another major victory. He has praised the Court of Arbitration. Fifteen of the “unbanned” Russians have had their applications refused by the IOC. It is a pity the IOC did not show similar fortitude before allowing so many Russians to compete under the “Olympic Athletes from Russia” banner. Sport is the loser.