Russia failed in an 11th hour attempt to overturn a ban against 47 athletes and coaches from participating at the 2018 Winter Games on Friday, saving the International Olympic Committee from welcoming individuals it had judged to be tainted by the most elaborate doping program in sports history.
The decision, delivered by the secretary general of the Court of Arbitration for Sport at a packed news conference, just hours before the opening ceremony, allowed the I.O.C. a reprieve from the legal disputes and welter of criticism linked to the Russia’s doping scandal.
The court essentially ruled that the I.O.C. had the right to decide which Russian athletes it could invite because it had already banned the country’s Olympic committee in December for its yearslong doping program that had corrupted several Winter and Summer Games.
Russia has continued to deny that it operated the doping program, whose tentacles reached to the highest levels of Russian sport, according to investigators. The panel agreed.
“This Panel is faced with evaluating an unprecedented response to an extraordinary situation, that is, a state-sponsored doping scheme,” the panel said.
Matthieu Reeb, the court’s secretary general, said the applicants did not demonstrate that the manner of two special commissions established to determine eligibility for the Games was carried out “in a discriminatory, arbitrary or unfair manner.”
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, who is serving a life ban from the Olympics for his role in the scandal, said: “This decision could not have been different. The inviting formula is extremely difficult to challenge, regardless of whether violations existed. The procedure itself is not transparent and does not contribute to the authority of the organization in the fans’ opinion.”
He compared the invitation process to a “commercial private club tournament,” adding, “This all will diminish competition and attention to the Games.”
Victory for the Russian contingent, which included Viktor Ahn, a short-track speedskater who has won six Olympic gold medals, and Anton Shipulin, a biathlon world champion, would have damaged the credibility of I.O.C. President Thomas Bach. Critics have accused Bach of trying too hard to avoid alienating Russia, which has been one of the most supportive and successful countries in international sports, at the expense of punishing the country for instituting the elaborate cheating scheme.
Just days earlier Bach had railed against the sports court for upholding the appeals of 28 Russian athletes who an I.O.C. panel had said breached antidoping regulations at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. That reversal paved the way for 15 individuals to join a claim by 32 others to be allowed to appear in Pyeongchang.
After completing its own prolonged investigations that reiterated what an independent investigation revealed in 2016, the I.O.C. banned Russian officials and athletes linked to the doping program but said it would allow individuals it deemed “clean” to participate as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.” That group of almost 170 athletes is one of the largest contingents at Pyeongchang.
“The fact the I.O.C. chose not to issue a blanket ban was a consequence of its efforts to reward clean athletes,” said Stephen Hess, chairman of the Appeals Tribunal for the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation.
Tensions have been running high over the participation of the Russian team. Many athletes have expressed concerns about the possibility of competing against individuals linked to the clandestine doping scheme that involved the large scale swapping of drug tainted urine samples for clean ones. Lowell Bailey, an American biathlete and a reigning world champion, this week blamed the I.O.C. for creating uncertainty so close to the games. “I think that the timing of all this is ridiculous,” he said.
The I.O.C. didn’t elaborate on the verdict Friday, issuing a 16-word statement shortly after it had been announced.
“We welcome this decision, which supports the fight against doping and brings clarity for all athletes,” it said.
In recent days, Russian officials here had expressed confidence the court would rule in their favor.
“Today is a great and historic day for Russian sport: We can finally win in this story of doping,” a Russian television journalist said in a live broadcast, standing just yards from the room where legal arguments were taking place Thursday.
Russia’s English language broadcaster RT took to Twitter to post a video of an enormous Russian flag beamed onto the front of building close to the Canadian headquarters of the World Anti Doping Agency. A slogan read: The Russians are Coming.
After making the announcement on behalf of the court, Reeb had to be spirited away into a side room as Russian journalists demanded to know why the three-person arbitration panel sided with the I.O.C.
“They didn’t make any violations of the antidoping rules. Why are they not let into the Olympic Games?” one television reporter demanded to know. Reeb smiled wanly before saying he couldn’t answer questions.
The case against Russia was largely built on the testimony of the former head of its drug testing laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov. Rodchenkov, now living in hiding in the United States, detailed how he had formulated cocktails of banned substances to athletes and swapped the tainted samples under the direction of government officials. Russia has branded him a traitor and issued an arrest warrant against him.
“I am confident that today’s decision is mostly a reaction to the outcry from clean athletes against Olympic corruption and complicity,” Rodchenkov’s lawyer Jim Walden said in a statement. “I hope I.O.C. President Thomas Bach is listening.”
The strain of the doping scandal was evident earlier this week at a meeting of the I.O.C.’s membership, when the usual chummy atmosphere briefly descended into accusations and recriminations when its longest-serving member, Canada’s Richard Pound, said the organization was in trouble.
“I don’t think we can talk our way out of this problem,” Pound said.
Gerardo Werthein, a member from Argentina, lashed back at Pound for being overly critical and discrediting the I.O.C.
Officials are hoping that the focus will switch from doping to sports now that the final appeals by the Russians are over.
“We want this relegated to page 17 of the newspapers when the sport starts not on the front or back,” the World Antidoping Agency president Craig Reedie said.
Source: The New York Times
