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With Russia facing a ban from 2016 Olympics Track and Field, will they withdraw completely from Rio?
The WADA report:
1) Systematic doping in Russian sport
The World Anti-Doping Agency independent report has recommended that Russia be banned from international athletics following details of systematic doping and a state-sanctioned cover-up. The president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Sebastian Coe, says he has urged the IAAF council to “start the process of considering sanctions” against the All-Russia Athletic Federation (Araf), having previously said he would be against such an exclusion. The report by Dick Pound, the former Wada president, also calls on five middle-distance runners and five coaches to be given lifetime doping bans.
2) London 2012 ‘sabotaged’ by Russia
Delays by the IAAF and the Russian Athletics Federation meant a number of athletes competed at the London Olympics, despite abnormal blood biological passport results, according to the report. Before the Games, the Russian Ministry of Sport provided Wada with a list of 14 athletes with abnormal profiles identified by the IAAF. Four of these athletes were sanctioned before the Olympics but 10 had “unexplained and highly suspicious” delayed notifications and were allowed to compete. Six competed in London, two winning medals. The report reads: “As a result of this widespread inaction, the Olympic Games in London were, in a sense, sabotaged by the admission of athletes who should have not been competing.”
3) Moscow laboratory at heart of the programme
The legitimacy of Russia’s main anti-doping laboratory in Moscow, the country’s only Wada-accredited lab, has been destroyed by the report. It confirms that the lab’s director, Grigory Rodchenkov, was an “aider and abettor of doping activities” and that Dr Rodchenkov accepted and requested money in order to execute the concealment of positive test results. The commission states that the Russian sports ministry issued direct orders to “manipulate particular samples”. The report suggests that the Wada-accreditation of the lab be revoked.
...
5) Russian state consented in doping
The report states that the presence of Russian security services at laboratories in Moscow and Sochi – where the 2014 Winter Olympics were held – “actively imposed an atmosphere of intimidation on laboratory process and staff”. Personnel at the main laboratory described the presence of the security forces: “Last time in Sochi we had some guys pretending to be engineers in the lab but actually they were from the federal security service, let’s call it the new KGB; FSB.”
...
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/09/london-2012-sabotaged-russia-wada-doping-report
The World Anti-Doping Agency independent report has recommended that Russia be banned from international athletics following details of systematic doping and a state-sanctioned cover-up. The president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Sebastian Coe, says he has urged the IAAF council to “start the process of considering sanctions” against the All-Russia Athletic Federation (Araf), having previously said he would be against such an exclusion. The report by Dick Pound, the former Wada president, also calls on five middle-distance runners and five coaches to be given lifetime doping bans.
2) London 2012 ‘sabotaged’ by Russia
Delays by the IAAF and the Russian Athletics Federation meant a number of athletes competed at the London Olympics, despite abnormal blood biological passport results, according to the report. Before the Games, the Russian Ministry of Sport provided Wada with a list of 14 athletes with abnormal profiles identified by the IAAF. Four of these athletes were sanctioned before the Olympics but 10 had “unexplained and highly suspicious” delayed notifications and were allowed to compete. Six competed in London, two winning medals. The report reads: “As a result of this widespread inaction, the Olympic Games in London were, in a sense, sabotaged by the admission of athletes who should have not been competing.”
3) Moscow laboratory at heart of the programme
The legitimacy of Russia’s main anti-doping laboratory in Moscow, the country’s only Wada-accredited lab, has been destroyed by the report. It confirms that the lab’s director, Grigory Rodchenkov, was an “aider and abettor of doping activities” and that Dr Rodchenkov accepted and requested money in order to execute the concealment of positive test results. The commission states that the Russian sports ministry issued direct orders to “manipulate particular samples”. The report suggests that the Wada-accreditation of the lab be revoked.
...
5) Russian state consented in doping
The report states that the presence of Russian security services at laboratories in Moscow and Sochi – where the 2014 Winter Olympics were held – “actively imposed an atmosphere of intimidation on laboratory process and staff”. Personnel at the main laboratory described the presence of the security forces: “Last time in Sochi we had some guys pretending to be engineers in the lab but actually they were from the federal security service, let’s call it the new KGB; FSB.”
...
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/09/london-2012-sabotaged-russia-wada-doping-report
Pound said it was inconceivable that the Russian sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, was not aware of the scale of the problem. “It was impossible for him not to be aware of it. And if he’s aware of it, he’s complicit in it,” he said.
“It would be naive in the extreme to conclude that activities on the scale discovered could have occurred without the explicit or tacit approval of Russian governmental authorities,” the report concludes.
Mutko, who leads the 2018 football World Cup organising committee, denied wrongdoing to the Wada inquiry panel, including any knowledge of athletes being blackmailed.
The Wada report said the Russian anti-doping agency was under improper influence from Mutko’s ministry, that it had given athletes advance notice of tests and that its employees “routinely” took bribes from athletes to cover up doping.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/09/wada-iaaf-russia-dick-pound-banned
“It would be naive in the extreme to conclude that activities on the scale discovered could have occurred without the explicit or tacit approval of Russian governmental authorities,” the report concludes.
Mutko, who leads the 2018 football World Cup organising committee, denied wrongdoing to the Wada inquiry panel, including any knowledge of athletes being blackmailed.
The Wada report said the Russian anti-doping agency was under improper influence from Mutko’s ministry, that it had given athletes advance notice of tests and that its employees “routinely” took bribes from athletes to cover up doping.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/nov/09/wada-iaaf-russia-dick-pound-banned
With the accusations heavily involving the Russian government, and the way they ran Sochi too, I can't see Putin putting his hands up and saying "it's a fair cop, you can ban our field and track athletes". His style will be to deny everything, and say he'll withdraw the entire team from all sports, hoping this will get some dubious deal done to allow them into track and field after all. At least there won't be automatic support from associated countries like 1980 and 1984, but it looks to me like we're back to political boycotts of the Olympics.
