THE Rio Olympics are teetering on the brink of chaos over drug bans for Russian stars.
Just 24 hours before the Games begin, Olympic bosses are at war with doping chiefs.
The World Anti-Doping Agency was accused of “sexing up” the case against Russia’s alleged state-sponsored drugs programme by naming ‘cheats’ who were not actually accused of doping.
And now, amid a huge split among senior Games figures, the International Olympic Committee issued an urgent notice to sports federations to reassess bans, which could see some Russians reinstated.
Senior IOC figures claim Games chiefs were misled by Canadian Professor Richard McLaren’s probe into claims that Russian tests were tampered with.
Around 170 Russian athletes have been banned for drug offences, with the entire track and field and weightlifting teams booted out of the Games.
But after analysis of the McLaren report, it has emerged the Moscow lab at the centre of the probe split the positive samples into four categories of seriousness — one of them not serious at all.
Related Stories
A senior sports official told The Australian newspaper: “We were asked to make a judgment about competitors but without having the detail to understand the significance of them being named.
“Why weren’t we told there were four different categories at the beginning? It is a mess and it’s Wada’s fault.’’olympic
McLaren admitted his report was hurriedly prepared, which made it difficult for him to verify the data against individuals.
Now the IOC wants Russians cleared if they were listed as ‘quarantine’ — meaning their sample was not changed.
World swimming federation Fina is poised to reinstate two Russian swimmers, Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev, who are now believed to have tested positive for social drugs rather than performance-enhancers.
The sports official added: “Wada sexed it up, which is crazy because now the report is under scrutiny. It puts question marks where question marks should not be.”
World Sailing has reversed its decision to axe Russia’s Pavel Sozykin from Rio based upon new IOC guidelines.
Leave a comment