D-day may have arrived for Russian athletics. Epilogue of a week where Maria Sharapova was caught with both hands in the box of meldonium, the IAAF Council has been meeting since the start of the day in Monaco to discuss, among other slippery subjects, the future in the short term. term of Russian athletics. Between the new revelations of the German channel ARD, the recent cases of doping and the more or less credible positions taken by each party, time is running out. With 5 months to go before the Rio Games, Sebastian Coe and the members of the Council cannot really postpone the moment to decide for too long.
Will they make a firm and definitive decision on Russia's presence at the Rio Games? Bernard Amsalem believes it. “We cannot leave each other before marking the occasion in the eyes of the world,” suggests the president of the French Athletics Federation (FFA), insisting on the urgency of pronouncing a clear opinion after the broadcast at the end of last week of the third part of the ARD channel investigation. A new documentary where the German television team demonstrates that, suspension or not, nothing has really changed in Russian athletics.
Vitaly Mutko, for his part, remains straight in his boots. Perfectly in his role, the Russian Minister of Sports assures that he does not expect any “revolutionary” decision from the IAAF Council. An announcement effect? Likely. A few days earlier, he assured his country's press that it would probably take "three or four years" to restore order to Russian sport.
A new voice came to join the concert. In English. Paula Radcliffe, the marathon world record holder, retired runner and now a member of the IAAF Athletes' Commission, does not want to see Russian athletes take to the track at the next Rio Games. She says it. She does even more than that. The Briton, who is at the forefront in the hunt for cheaters, actively supports an online petition to demand that the many Russian dopers reimburse the sums of money won in competition since 2009.
Launched Tuesday March 8, the petition had recorded nearly 150 signatures after less than two days of being posted online. Among the signatories, in addition to Paula Radcliffe, the bronze medalist in the heptathlon at the London Games, Kelly Sotherton, the executive director of the London Marathon, Nick Bitel, the race director of the Berlin Marathon, Mark Milde, but also the Kenyan Edna Kiplagat, world marathon champion in 2011 and 2013, or the German Irina Mikitenko, victorious in the London Marathon in 2008.
The petition aims to be radical: to force cheaters to reimburse. Nick Bitel explained it to the BBC: “The idea is excellent and could prove dissuasive. A very large number of athletes around the world have been victims of this doping policy in Russia. They must be able to receive some form of compensation. » The director of the London Marathon has already chosen a target: the Russian Liliya Shobukhova, victorious in the English capital in 2010, since convicted of doping. The young woman saw her name removed from the list, but she never had to return her success bonus. “We will pursue her wherever she is,” promises Nick Bitel.
Paula Radcliffe explained it to Associated Press: the field is too severely undermined in Russia to allow the country to march with impunity to the Rio Games. “It is time to act,” pleads the Briton. The facts speak for themselves, but the authorities have not gone far enough. » The young woman insists: “Russian athletes have such a culture of doping that I come to doubt that they would be able to perform if they returned to the track clean. I wonder if they would be able to train without resorting to performance-enhancing drugs. " Downright.
