In flight: Russia was deprived of the Olympics

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The IOC Executive Board decided to suspend the Russian national team from the 2018 Olympics

On December 5, at the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, a meeting of the organization's executive committee was held, at which the fate of Russian athletes was decided. The IOC decided to disqualify the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), which will not allow domestic athletes to compete at the Games under their own flag. At the same time, athletes who have proven that they have not used doping will be able to compete under a neutral flag. In addition, the president of the ROC, Alexander Zhukov, was stripped of membership in the IOC, and the national committee will be obliged to pay $ 15 million, which will go to the development of an independent doping control system.

Vitaly Mutko suspended from the Olympic Games for life

The IOC made a tough decision not only in relation to Zhukov. Former sports minister Vitaly Mutko was sentenced to life in suspension. He will not be able to take part in the activities of the Olympic Movement and its events. Similar sanctions were applied to his former deputy, Yuri Nagornykh, who was mentioned in the report of the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) led by Richard McLaren.

Members of the Russian delegation were not allowed to speak at the IOC meeting

The Russian side at the IOC Executive Committee was to be represented by ROC President Zhukov, the head of the Independent Public Anti-Doping Commission (PLA) Vitaly Smirnov and two-time world figure skating champion Evgenia Medvedeva. It was planned that each of them will address the audience, but they were never given the floor. It is noted that before the start of the meeting, all members of the Russian delegation were obliged to hand over their mobile phones. It is assumed that the IOC feared leaks before the announcement of the official decision.

The decision on a possible boycott of the Olympics by Russian athletes has not yet been made

Opinions were divided over the reaction to the IOC's decision. Some say that all Russian athletes are obliged to act as a united front and boycott the Olympics, while others are convinced that each athlete should be given the right to decide whether to participate in the Games in a neutral status or remain faithful to the flag. The individual system of admission to competitions, which the IOC offered to Russians, was successfully used before the 2017 World Athletics Championships: leading domestic athletes were able to compete in the world championship as neutral athletes and win prizes

IOC investigation begins with charges against Rodchenkov

The misadventures of the Russian athletes began with the accusations of the former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, who became an informant for WADA. In early 2016, the chemist fled Russia to the United States, where he gave a lengthy interview to The New York Times a few months later. In it, he described in detail the mechanism for substituting doping samples of domestic athletes at the Sochi Olympics, accusing most of the Russian winners and medalists of the 2014 Games of using prohibited drugs. Samuel Schmid, who headed the IOC commission, noted that the committee's decision was based not only on the words of Rodchenkov: "The conclusions of the IOC investigation are based not only on Rodchenkov's statements, but also on documentary evidence and other evidence that is objective and impartial."

In total, ten medals of the Sochi Olympics have already been taken away from Russia

As a result of the activities of the IOC commissions, ten medals from the Olympic Games in Sochi were taken away from domestic athletes. Four of them were in cross-country skiing: Alexander Legkov's gold in the marathon, the silver of the Russian men's team in the relay 4 x 10 kilometers, as well as two silver awards of Maxim Vylegzhanin (marathon and team sprint); two gold bobsledders Zubkov, two in a skeleton - gold by Alexander Tretyakov and bronze by Elena Nikitina, as well as two in biathlon - silver of the women's team in the relay and silver of Olga Vilukhina in the sprint.

On the eve of the 2018 Olympic Games, Russian athletes are checked with particular passion

The medical and scientific director of the IOC, Richard Budgett, spoke about this. According to him, the goal of the committee is to check each athlete at one of the key stages of preparation for the Games. Budgett admitted that on the eve of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, Russian athletes were checked with particular bias much more often than representatives of other countries. The functionary noted that the IOC is not able to check all athletes during the Games, therefore it is trying to minimize risks before the start of the competition.