Russia Track & Field Banned from Olympics

[boogielicious]

http://www.si.com/olympics/2016/06/17/russia-track-and-field-doping-ban-2016-olympics-iaaf-decision

This can't make Vlad happy. 

The Russian track and field team has been banned from competing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after the country failed to reform its anti-doping policies.

International Association of Athletics Federations, track and field's world governing body, made the unanimous decision on Friday.

“There are detailed allegations, which are already partly substantiated, that the Russian authorities, far from supporting the anti-doping effort, have in fact orchestrated systematic doping and the covering up of adverse analytical findings,” the IAAF said in a statement. “The decision not to reinstate Russia means that Russian athletes remain ineligible under IAAF Rules to compete in International Competitions including the European Championships and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.”

The Russian Ministry of Sport issued the following statement:

“We are extremely disappointed by the IAAF's decision to uphold the ban on all of our track and field athletes, creating the unprecedented situation of a whole nation’s track and field athletes being banned from the Olympics. Clean athletes’s dreams are being destroyed because of reprehensible behavior of other athletes and officials. They have sacrificed years of their lives striving to compete at the Olympics and now that sacrifice looks to be wasted. We have done everything possible since the ban was first imposed to regain the trust of the international community. We have rebuilt out anti-doping institutions which are being led by respected international experts. Out athletes are being tested by the UK’s anti-doping agency, UKAD, and every one of them is undergoing a minimum of three tests in addition to the usual requirements. We have nothing to hide and feel we had met the IAAF’s conditions for re-entry. We now appeal to the members of the International Olympic Committee to not only consider the impact that our athletes’s exclusion will have on their dreams and the people of Russia, but also that the Olympics themselves will be diminished by their absence. The Games are supposed to be a source of unity, and we hope they remain as a way of bringing people together.”

 

[Abu3baid]

Very interesting indeed.  I was listening to the news and the athletes can go ahead and file a complaint or something and they may compete in the olympics if they have for example been training outside of Russia, or can prove they have been training with a respected coach who is known to be a clean coach ect..

However, if they compete they may not compete under the Russian flag, but rather a neutral Non-country affiliation or something (I don't think they have it all figured it out yet).  This obviously is not an easy choice, because if the athletes choose to do it they may be ostracized by their home country and no one knows what the reaction would be.

I fee bad for the clean athletes though, but still can't understand the decision.  They can easily implement testing over a very long time period instead of just plain banning everyone, it just seems like this wasn't thought out.

[boogielicious]

48 minutes ago, Abu3baid said:

Very interesting indeed.  I was listening to the news and the athletes can go ahead and file a complaint or something and they may compete in the olympics if they have for example been training outside of Russia, or can prove they have been training with a respected coach who is known to be a clean coach ect..

However, if they compete they may not compete under the Russian flag, but rather a neutral Non-country affiliation or something (I don't think they have it all figured it out yet).  This obviously is not an easy choice, because if the athletes choose to do it they may be ostracized by their home country and no one knows what the reaction would be.

I fee bad for the clean athletes though, but still can't understand the decision.  They can easily implement testing over a very long time period instead of just plain banning everyone, it just seems like this wasn't thought out.

The IOC relies on the individual country orgs to do the testing. It is the Russian testing organization that is doing the doping or masking. So they can't be trusted.

[Abu3baid]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

The IOC relies on the individual country orgs to do the testing. It is the Russian testing organization that is doing the doping or masking. So they can't be trusted.

Right, that's why they could assign a trusted third party to do it as a criteria for the Russians to participate and Russia has to pay for it and the monitoring..  I just think there are other solutions that don't punish the individuals.. I mean in the end the whole point of the olympics is to compete against the best in the world.  They will have world champs that will not be competing, and that's the bigger tragedy.

[Golfingdad]

So they were banned for failing to do what they needed to do and the Rissian response was "we have done everything possible ..."

Hmmm.

[Hazsa]

On 18 June 2016 at 2:51 PM, Abu3baid said:

Right, that's why they could assign a trusted third party to do it as a criteria for the Russians to participate and Russia has to pay for it and the monitoring..  I just think there are other solutions that don't punish the individuals.. I mean in the end the whole point of the olympics is to compete against the best in the world.  They will have world champs that will not be competing, and that's the bigger tragedy.

Even if they can do this it'll only be effective for the next Olympics. Gains made while doping during training in the years prior to the Games is just as criminal as doping during the event.