Decision time: IOC poised to rule on Russia's status for Rio
With the credibility of the fight against doping on the line and the image of the Olympic movement at stake, the IOC will hold a crucial meeting Sunday to consider whether to ban Russia entirely from the Rio Games because of systematic, state-sponsored cheating.
The doping crisis represents one of the Olympic movement’s biggest challenges since the boycott era of the 1980s, and how it plays out may well define Thomas Bach’s IOC presidency.
Russia’s track and field athletes have already been banned by the IAAF, the sport’s governing body, following allegations of state-directed doping — a decision that was upheld Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Calls for a complete ban on Russia have intensified since Monday when Richard McLaren, a Canadian lawyer commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, issued a report accusing Russia’s sports ministry of overseeing a vast doping program of its Olympic athletes.
McLaren’s investigation, based heavily on evidence from former Moscow doping lab director Grigory Rodchenkov, affirmed allegations of brazen manipulation of Russian urine samples at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, but also found that state-backed doping had involved 28 summer and winter sports from 2011 to 2015.
Bach said the findings showed a “shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games” and declared the IOC “will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated.”
On Thursday, Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes announced the arrest of 10 Brazilians who police said had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and discussed on social media the possibility of staging attacks during next month’s Games.
Britain’s Mo Farah cruised to victory in the 5,000 meters and Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce fell short in a sluggish sprint at a London Diamond League meet in contrasting fortunes for the Olympic champions in their final races before heading to Rio de Janeiro.