Banned for Doping Russian Athletes from Olympics Reinstated for Winter Games

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has reinstated 28 Russian athletes who had been banned from Olympic competition creating anger at the IOC and among other competing nations. This has ramifications that go beyond the Olympics as athletes elsewhere see they can challenge doping rulings and win on the field and in the courts, increasing the likelihood of this happening even more.

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The International Olympic Committee has reacted with dismay after 28 Russian athletes had their lifetime bans from the Olympics dramatically overturned by the court of arbitration for sport and warned that the ruling could have serious consequences for the fight against doping.
As Russia’s sports ministry celebrated the decision, saying that “justice had finally triumphed”, the IOC was bracing itself for a fresh legal challenge from some of the athletes who now want to compete in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang which begin next Friday.
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Russians hail 'triumph of justice' as IOC doping bans are overturned


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</aside>Cas’s ruling also means the 28 will have their results reinstated from the 2014 Winter Olympics, returning Russia to the top of the medal table. They include the skeleton medallists Alexander Tretyakov and Elena Nikitina, who have already indicated they want to compete in Pyeongchang.
British IOC member Adam Pengilly said he was “appalled and angry” at the decision, adding that it was “a desperate and dark day for sport, with cheats and thieves allowed to triumph. We need to take a long, hard look at sport’s leading administrators and sport’s legal system when we see the greatest fraud at an Olympic Games and years of institutional doping conspiracy pass by with only minor punishment,” he said. ...
The ROC remains suspended from Pyeongchang because of state-sponsored doping in Sochi. However, as things stand, around 160 Russians have been granted permission to compete as “neutral” athletes under the banner of Olympic Athlete from Russia after being cleared of doping by an IOC anti-doping panel. That figure could yet rise, although for now the IOC is insisting it will not automatically allow any of the Russians cleared by Cas late entry into the Games. “The result of the Cas decision does not mean that athletes from the group of 28 will be invited,” it said in a statement. “Not being sanctioned does not automatically confer the privilege of an invitation.”
The IOC was also unusually critical of Cas’s ruling, suggesting the court had not taken enough account of evidence of “the proven existence of the systematic manipulation of the anti-doping system” at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...port-athletics

Overturning the ban on cheating Russians literally also enables these athletes to regain the medals that were taken from them for doping, leaving many who have fought for dope-free sports feeling angry and frustrated, as well as setting up a terrible for young athletes.

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the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned the lifetime ban of 28 Russian athletes, opening the possibility for those athletes to compete in the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea. That decision followed an earlier ruling by the IOC which allows Russian athletes to take part in Pyeongchang under the designation “Olympic Athletes from Russia.” ...
Together, the two rulings have effectively neutered the sanctions levied against Russia for conducting a comprehensive, state-wide doping program in and around the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. It also delivered a punch to the gut of the Olympic movement in general and anti-doping specifically.Prior to the CAS decision, 169 Russian athletes were expected to compete in Pyeongchang. Now, the 28 athletes who had their bans lifted will attempt to take part in South Korea. The decision also reinstated nine of the 13 medals won by Russian athletes in Sochi which had been disqualified by the IOC. In other words, the cheaters won. ...

CAS ruled there was “insufficient evidence” to uphold the lifetime bans and disqualify the medals won by Russian athletes in Sochi. This, at least, made the Russian authorities happy. Others, not so much. “There is irrefutable proof that a member state of the Olympic movement has engaged in cheating,” said Canadian Becky Scott, chair of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). “It required a level of response we haven’t seen.”
Scott was first introduced to that “irrefutable proof” in the summer of 2016 when she and other key members of the anti-doping movement were briefed on the revelations of Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow laboratory and the chief whistle-blower in the case. ...

Still, the battle continues. Scott says a new standard of compliance will be adopted by WADA in April that will change the game. The new protocol takes the focus away from individual athletes and targets the signatories of WADA’s code: international federations, national anti-doping bodies, organizers of major events.
“It’s something the athletes were pushing for,” said Scott. “This will bring all stakeholders to account. It will bring the ability for WADA to impose penalties and sanctions.”

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http://theprovince.com/sports/olympi...e-cheaters-win

Another sad part of the ruling allowing cheaters to be reinstated is that those athletes who were clean and were failed to obtain the medal they deserved in Sochi and the recognition that goes with that, such as the Canadian lugers, and then were awarded the medal they deserved when the cheaters tested positive for drugs, will now have those medals taken from them.

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/e...82415579728716

So 28 athletes were railroaded and they got their reprieve from the body set up to protect athletes from corrupt governing bodies. And that's a bad thing just because they are from the new propaganda enemy of the day?

But hey. Just because they were exonerated doesn't mean the corrupt will allow these athletes to compete. That would go against their dogma.

Becky Scott, who is the chair of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency began her campaign against sports doping in 2001, along with teammate Sara Renner, after seeing numerous positive tests in her cross-country skiing sport is determined to keep up the fight against doping.

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“I would say it’s a dark day, maybe one of the first times I feel a little less hopeful about the future for clean sport,” Scott said. “It just doesn’t seem to be moving in the right direction with a day like today.”
The International Olympic Committee may not invite the 28 Russians to Pyeongchang, but there is dangerous precedent in the CAS ruling.
“There may be new standards defined in terms of establishing an (anti-doping rule violation) for athletes with this decision,” said Scott. "The fact remains the proof was there with the expert witnesses and evidence brought forward ... proving beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of a state-sponsored doping system and these athletes’ active participation in that system. So how this cannot result in disqualification from the Olympic Games is very hard to understand. To really have no penalty or consequence for what happened in Sochi is difficult to digest.” ...

“There is this global majority of athletes who are clean who feel their right to a level playing field is not being upheld and protected in the way it should be,” she said. ...

Scott grew up in a socially conscious household in Vermilion, Alta. Her parents Jan and Walter taught right from wrong and, more than that, to stick up for what’s right. That life lesson sustains her in the fight against doping, even in the face of systemic cheating by Russia, even as the courts let dopers off the hook. ...

“I get to hear about everything she has been battling,” said Renner. “It’s actually quite raw. It’s so emotional. It’s so unfortunate because it’s a battle for clean sport and it’s a battle at the very top. ...

“And so, despite everything that’s kind of gone wrong along the way, it’s something that still resonates with me and I would say, with Canadians in general. So it’s kind of like we’re at the point where we have to either s--- or get off the pot. We have to clean it up so we can keep that feeling.”

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https://www.pressreader.com/canada/o...81921658494755