Armour: IOC taking soft stance on Russia ban
The International Olympic Committee huffed and puffed and told a bunch of people they were no longer welcome at its big party.
Not enough people, though. Not yet, anyway.
A day after a report showed Russia went to astonishing and sinister lengths to subvert every ideal the Olympic movement holds dear, the IOC on Tuesday expressed its outrage the best way it knows how. It put a small dent in a can, but mostly kicked it down the road and in somebody else’s direction.
Sure, the IOC’s executive board said it “will explore the legal options” of kicking Russia out of the Games, about as stern a scolding there is for the folks who threw a $51 billion party two years ago. But the IOC also acknowledged it can’t really do anything until an appeals court rules on the ban on Russia’s track and field athletes.
Besides, the IOC indicated, it’s really up to the individual sports federations to decide what to do, anyway.
It was a mixed message, one that will placate everyone and no one. Which might have been the point.
The IOC is facing a crisis that could undermine its very existence. According to a report released Monday by independent investigator Richard McLaren, Russia’s state-run doping program went deeper and was more coordinated than anyone could have imagined.
Positive doping tests were routinely covered up at the direction of the Sports Ministry. Samples were destroyed. At the Sochi Games, the entire testing process was undermined to ensure no Russian tested positive and the host country returned to its rightful place of superiority atop the medals standings.
If ever there was a time for the IOC to take a strong stand, this was it.
“I call upon leadership of the IOC to … actually step up and act and do what’s right,” Adam Pengilly, a British skeleton racer and member of the IOC’s Athletes Commission, said Monday night.
“If we’re going to be sustainable as an Olympic movement, we have to take tough stances on doping and that doesn’t just mean on athletes. It’s across the board,” Pengilly said. “To be credible, we have to do that as well. Otherwise, young people won’t watch sport because they won’t believe what they see is the truth.”
Except it’s not so easy. For all the high-minded talk about protecting clean athletes and the purity of sport, the bills still have to be paid. And Russia is a powerful voice in the Olympic movement, one with very deep pockets.
There will be no quick decisions when it comes to Russia. Given that the Games start in 17 days, there might not be any real decisions, at all.