Moscow: With an Olympic boycott ruled out, Russia is planning to at least partially admit it has a doping problem.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Thursday that there will “not in any case” be a boycott of next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
A short time later in a separate interview, the acting president of the Russian track federation said he is ready to own up to some of the charges levelled in the World Anti-Doping Agency commission’s massive report on doping in the country.
“We admit some things, we argue with some things, some are already fixed, it’s a variety,” said Vadim Zelichenok, declining to provide further details. “It’s not for the press.”
The governing body of track and field is expected to rule Friday on whether to suspend Russia from competition because of the doping scandal. If Russia is banned, the country’s track and field team could be excluded from next year’s Olympics.
Monday’s damning report by the WADA commission recommended that the Russian track federation be suspended, saying its athletes and officials were involved in “extensive” use of performance-enhancing drugs, obstructed doping tests and helped to cover up drug use. The report said Zelichenok “refused to cooperate” with investigators.
Even if Russia’s track and field team is banned, Mutko told the AP that the country has no intention of boycotting the Olympics.
“Russia is against a boycott. Russia is against political interference in sport,” Mutko said. “Understand that Russia is a dependable partner of the international Olympic movement.”
Mutko also appealed for Russia’s track team to be allowed to compete, arguing that a blanket ban would unfairly punish clean athletes.
“It will be painful for those athletes with clean consciences who could compete, that’s the first thing. And the second thing is that it goes against the spirit of the WADA code,” Mutko said. “The commission itself writes about it in its report. It’s about protecting the athletes with clean consciences.”
During the Cold War, the United States and allies boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest at the Soviet Union. Four years later, there was a Soviet-led boycott of the Olympics in Los Angeles.
Thirty years later, Sergei Bubka still feels the pain of missing out on a chance of a gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics because of the Soviet boycott.
“It’s even more painful now,” the Ukrainian pole vault great said Thursday in an interview. “I paid the price. I had an excellent chance to become Olympic champion in 1984. This dream was stolen.”
Now, as vice president of the IAAF, Bubka opposes a blanket ban on Russia’s track and field team and wants “innocent” athletes protected so they can compete in next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “They should not suffer,” he said. “It is our duty to protect the clean athletes.”
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted clean athletes should be allowed to compete and asked Russian sports officials to carry out an internal investigation into the allegations made in the doping report. Mutko said Russia would provide constant updates about its investigation.
“Practically every day, at the end of the day, we release some kind of information message about the steps we’re taking and we will continue to do that,” Mutko said. “We’re prepared to inform international society about the steps we’re taking, the investigation, the decisions.”
In one move, the Russian Olympic Committee asked former Russian track federation president Valentin Balakhnichev to resign from its executive board. The WADA commission’s report said Balakhnichev was “ultimately responsible” for doping and cover-ups at the federation during his tenure and linked him to instances in which money was allegedly extorted from athletes.
In southern Black Sea resort of Sochi, the host city of last year’s Winter Olympics, some Russian track and field athletes trained in the sun on Thursday. Many remained upbeat about their chances of competing in the Olympics while questioning why other countries were not being investigated alongside Russia.
