The IOC: If We Can Toss Russia, We Will

Been a bit of a hectic week, so the IOC's response to the WADA recommendations fell through the cracks a moment.

The IOC released a statement yesterday outlining it's response to WADA's recommendations in the state-sponsored sports terrorism through doping scandal in Russia.

It appears that the IOC is prepared to expel Russia from the Rio Games, but there are legal hurdles which must still be surmounted.

“The findings of the report show a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games. Therefore, the IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organisation implicated,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. 

The current actions are as follows:

1) A five-person committee has been immediately impaneled to discuss sanctions against individuals, including those in the Russian Ministry of Sport, for the findings in the WADA report.   

This is for individual sanctions.

2) Here's the key one, and I will quote this from the report:

With regard to the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympic Games Rio 2016, the IOC will carefully evaluate the IP Report. It will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice. In this respect, the IOC will have to take the CAS decision on 21 July 2016 concerning the IAAF rules into consideration, as well as the World Anti-Doping Code and the Olympic Charter. 

It appears to me, that, with this and other actions taken in the report, the message is simple:  If we can, we will.

First off, the Council for Arbitration of Sport has been called by Russia to appeal the track-and-field disqualification, and their decision comes tomorrow.  Obviously, should Russia win the appeal and be able to compete in track and field in Rio, the IOC's hands are probably tied.

Second, at that point, the WADA Code, Olympic Charter, and the concept of "individual justice" would be brought to the fore.

The WADA situation should be clear:  WADA has, in fact, called for full disqualification.  WADA believes it is within the Code for the IOC to remove Russia from the Games.

The Charter (now a 110-page document -- you can see the .PDF file here) does give the IOC "Last Resort" power over the Games.  (By-Law 58)  By-Law 59 covers disciplinary resources of the IOC, which specifically mentions the World Anti-Doping Code, the WADA Code.

Section 1.4 does give the IOC Executive Committee the power to suspend, and do so on a case-by-case basis, for violations of the Olympic charter so involved.

So it does appear the only question remaining is whether Russia can be disqualified under the report (the appeal of the IAAF decision, CAS ruling tomorrow) and the concept of "individual justice".

3) The IOC has also:

• Disqualified Russia from any hosting or recognition of IOC-level events, including the 2019 European Games.  This would mean that the European Olympic Committees would have to find a third host for the event, as they provisionally chose Russia in November 2015 to host the event after the Netherlands pulled out.
• No member of the Russian Ministry of Sport or anyone else implicated in the report will get credentials for the Rio Games.
• A second Disciplinary Commission will report on all Russian athletes from Sochi, and their true drug status from the event.  At this point, only after such a Commission meets might medals be stripped or reassigned.
• The IOC is calling for a full freeze of all high-level international sporting events in Russia until Russia is found drug-code-compliant, and to look for other locations.  This means you, FIFA and World Cup 2020 -- among others.
• Each individual sport is asked for relevant inquiries and sanctions going forward.

4) Russia has now officially lost the right for it's athletes to be determined "innocent until proven guilty" with respect to drug usage, and this has been affirmed by this decision -- and the actions to demand universal and non-tampered testing of the entire Russian Olympic Team (and if and only if they are forced to allow them to compete in Rio!) will continue, on a sport-by-sport basis.

5) The IOC wants the names of athletes implicated as having their positives tampered or removed - this was not in the original mandate of the report, and the IOC is now asking WADA to expand that mandate.

6) Once the Disciplinary Committees (the one against officials of Russian Ministry of Sport and the one about the Sochi athletes) complete their work, their findings go to WADA and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

7) It is agreed that the fight against doping in sports has failed.  The IOC joins the call for WADA to convene an "Extraordinary Conference on World Doping" in 2017, and will meet in another doping summit in October of this year to refine this call.

This is basically all-but-short of a request for apartheid-level sanctions against Russia:  Effectively, to make Russia a pariah in sports until it's state-sponsored terrorism through sports doping is taken care of, much in the same recognition as South Africa when apartheid was in force.

This makes the next move simple:  If the IOC Executive Committee can legally expel Russia from the Rio Games, they appear fully-prepared to do so.  They appear to have the authority, and the backing from WADA.  They now need to wait for the CAS decision tomorrow, and carefully weigh the decision against what clean athletes Russia MIGHT field to Rio if they are allowed to do so.

LATE DEVELOPMENT:  Dick Pound of the IOC (and formerly of WADA as well) does not believe the Executive Committee has the spine to pull off the blanket ban, even if the IAAF disqualification is upheld.  (The Guardian)