Doping scandal makes Olympic-class spoilsports of Russian team

Revelations about Russia’s doping program at the 2014 Winter Games has thrown the Rio Games into disarray.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, left, sits in the stands with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the World Cup final soccer match between Germany and Argentina at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in July 2014.

Three years ago, barely minutes after his coronation as International Olympic Committee president, I asked Thomas Bach a question about the imminent challenges of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games preparations.

He started to answer when a suited minion thrust a phone into his hand. Bach apologised and took the call.

“Thank you, sir,’’ he said briefly, turning on his heels on the patterned carpet of the Buenos Aires Hilton hotel.

The caller was Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of the most intimate Olympic “friends”, given the $50 billion the country spent building an entire mountain resort to host the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, and he was wanting to impart his congratulations.

“Yes, it was Mr Putin,” Bach confirmed a few minutes later. “We did not discuss the law.”

The issue at the time was the ­furore over Russian anti-gay propaganda and the impact on the Sochi Winter Olympics. The concerns for Rio were about the government delays in starting crucial building works.

No one was to foretell that three years on the phone calls ­between the two men would strike at the heart of international diplomacy: that Russia would be ­accused of the most egregious cheating, using spies to switch urine samples, its sports leaders dishing out doses of the “Duchess”, an alcoholic steroid concoction, and its Deputy Sports Minister Yuri Nagornykh accused of ordering the Moscow laboratory to change 643 positive drugs samples to be negative.

Olympic chiefs yesterday caused widespread anger with their refusal to impose a blanket ban on Russia for the Rio Games over its rampant doping program.

The IOC passed the buck to ­individual sports to decide who should be allowed to compete, a decision that is likely to enable scores if not hundreds of Russians to take part in Rio.

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko says he expects to see most of the 387-strong team in Brazil next month, with only track-and-field competitors missing after their ban from international athletics. Within two hours of the decision, all seven Russian tennis players were ­declared eligible for Rio. The IOC had been under pressure to throw Russia out of the Games after an investigation funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency found proof of a doping program directed by the Russian sports ministry.

The scheme ­involved officers from the FSB ­secret service and covered up at least 312 positive tests across more than 30 sports.

Travis Tygart, head of anti-doping for the US and the man who exposed cyclist Lance Armstrong’s cheating in the Tour de France, says the IOC has failed to show decisive leadership.

“It is so frustrating that in this incredibly important moment they would pass the baton to sports federations who may lack the ­expertise or collective will to ­appropriately address the situation,” he says. “The conflict of ­interest is glaring.”

Sports lawyers also have questioned the basis of the decision. Gregory Ioannidis, who specialises in litigation at the Court of ­Arbitration for Sport, says it will lead to procedural chaos and legal uncertainty.

Various anti-doping agencies and coaching bodies have backed WADA’s call for a ban on all Russians at the Olympics, as have leading athletes — including the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt.

But the IOC also says Russian athletes no longer have a presumption of innocence because of the evidence showing widespread doping sanctioned by the country’s sporting officials and ­security agencies.

“We have balanced desire, the need for collective responsibility with the right of individual justice of each individual athlete,” Bach says.

In creating the loophole, the IOC is seeking to skirt a crisis that would have been created by ­banishing one of its most imp­ortant and influential member countries.

A country’s entire delegation has never been banned from an Olympics for cheating, though Russia’s team will likely be sev­erely diminished.

Russia’s team was expected to be among the top-five medal-­winning nations, and the fallout from the IOC decision practically ensures that doping will remain in the spotlight throughout the Games. Russia won 82 medals as of the closing ceremony at the 2012 London Games, ranking fourth on the overall medal table.

Russian athletes will have to satisfy stringent criteria to be ­approved for competition in Rio.

Any Russian athlete who has ever served a suspension for a doping infraction will be banned even if that suspension has been completed, the IOC says.

Each international sport federation will have to review each athlete’s application to compete in Rio individually ­and the findings must be upheld by the Court of ­Arbitration for Sport, the highest appeals court in athletic circles.

Among the sports in which Russia has been strong are weightlifting, wrestling and gymnastics, where the nation earned 29 medals combined in London.

Russian gymnasts won four medals at last year’s world championships, including gold medals by Maria Paseka in women’s vault and Viktoria ­Komova and Daria Spiridonova in a four-way tie in women’s ­uneven bars.

Amid this uncertainty and turmoil and just weeks from the ­August 5 opening ceremony, Russian track and field athletes who have trained for their chance at Olympic glory say they are being treated unfairly.

Yelena Isinbayeva, the world record-holding pole vault Olympic champion who lived for years in Monaco and Italy before returning to her hometown of Volgograd to have a baby, says: “Faith’s not lacking but it won’t be a good thing to be at the unjust funeral of our sport.’’

The Russians adopted an ­increasingly frantic response to the allegations after their calls about Western and US prejudice were largely ignored.

Putin, who has made athletics a central part of his campaign to restore Russian pride, previously has ­said the doping allegations are partly a political ploy by the West. Putin referred to some of the most uncomfortable days in Olympic history, the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics after Russia invaded Afghanistan, in an outcry about political witch-hunts. Four years later, in a retaliatory ­response, the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics.

‘’Today we see a dangerous ­relapse of politics intruding into sports,’’ Putin says.

Former Soviet Union ­leader Mikhail Gorbachev, a friend of the West, had asked Bach to make a fair decision.

“I am concerned and deeply saddened by the possibility that in case all Russian athletes are banned from competing in the Olympic Games, the innocent will be punished together with the guilty,’’ he wrote.

“The principle of collective punishment is unacceptable for me. I am convinced that it con­tradicts the very culture of the Olympic movement based on universal values, humanism and principles of law.’’

The decision came at the end of one of the most tumultuous weeks in recent IOC history, kicked off when a WADA investigation ­revealed how Russia corrupted the testing lab at the Sochi Olympics in 2014 as part of a five-year plan to hide its cheating from the rest of the world.

International sport officials now face an unprecedented two weeks of staggering paperwork, subjective evaluation and hurried appeals to process the eligibility for hundreds of Russian athletes seeking to compete in Rio.

It ensures some awkward ­moments in Rio, where questions about whether an athlete is clean will be inevitable each time the Russian national anthem plays to celebrate a gold medal.

Additional reporting: The Times, The Wall Street Journal

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Will there definitely be Russian athletes at the Rio Olympics?

Absolutely. There will be 200 to 300 Russia athletes across most sports. The country’s Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko, says he expects “the vast majority” of the Russian team to be eligible for Rio.

Hasn’t the IOC said it had laid down tough criteria for Russian athletes to meet?

Criteria, yes. Tough, not really. The IOC has left it to individual sports to decide if the Russian athletes satisfy the criteria in terms of drugs tests. Most are expected to pass.

Which Russians will be banned from Rio?

We know that the track and field team will not be there. Any Russian who has ever failed a drugs test is also barred. Weightlifting and rowing are expected to take a tough line. Russia may also be excluded from the Paralympics in Rio in September.

Was this decision by the IOC expected?

Yes and no. Thomas Bach, the IOC president, talked last week about taking the toughest possible sanctions. However, sports such as swimming, and powerful members of the IOC executive board, opposed such action and won the day.

Are there likely to be implications for the 2018 Winter Olympics?

Bach says there has been no discussion of the Winter Olympics. However, given that the Sochi Winter Olympics were at the epicentre of Russia’s cheating then there is likely to be more pressure brought to bear.