Back to square one for Russian sport? Possible. According to an anonymous source, cited by Associated Press, the data from the Moscow laboratory transmitted at the beginning of the year to the World Anti-Doping Agency are said to be more than doubtful. They would have been handled before taking the plane to Canada, at the world headquarters of WADA.
The matter is important. Citing a source close to the matter but wishing to remain anonymous, AP reveals that WADA has suspicions about the authenticity of the thousands of data extracted at the Moscow laboratory. A report from the international agency’s Conformity Review Committee (CRC) details them in black and white. It is presented this Monday, September 23 to the AMA executive committee, meeting in Tokyo. The same report will be studied, also on Monday, by the IAAF Council in Doha.
The same anonymous source confirmed the information toAFP. A journalist from the German channel ARD, Hajo Seppelt, specialist in doping issues, extended the information on Twitter, assuring that the Russians “ are suspected of having manipulated data from the Moscow laboratory” handed over to the AMA at the beginning of 2019, after several months of a pas de deux which almost never ended.
Will Russian sport be sanctioned again? Will the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) be declared non-compliant again? Caution. The same source specifiedAFP than " the Russians still have to explain themselves. » A WADA spokesperson confided, for his part, that the report in question would not be made public before the meeting of the agency's executive committee.
Nevertheless, the information throws a new stone into the pond. It could, if confirmed, push Russia back several steps. And even, who knows, predict a new suspension of Russian sport, less than a year before the Tokyo 2020 Games. It is difficult, in fact, to imagine the IOC remaining idly involved if it were proven that the authorities Russians deliberately corrupted the data from the Moscow laboratory to erase the most visible traces of doping.
For the time being, the report of the Compliance Review Committee makes the lifting of the suspension, by the IAAF Council, of the Russian Athletics Federation very hypothetical. It must be discussed this Monday, September 23 in Doha. These new elements will give Sebastian Coe and the other members of the Council every good reason to extend the sidelining.
As a reminder, 29 athletes are authorized to compete, under cover of neutrality, in the 2019 World Championships in Doha (September 27 to October 6). The others, whose files were all rejected by the IAAF, will follow them in front of television.
What happens next could hold its share of surprises. WADA announced at the beginning of July that it had discovered nearly 300 cases of Russian athletes, across all disciplines, presenting “ the most suspicious data ». The files considered very doubtful, numbering 43, were transmitted to the international federations concerned.
Since then, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) is the only one to have come out of the woods. She announced the suspension of 12 Russian athletes. The other international organizations have not yet moved an eyelash.
According to AP, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) would not be the most threatened. She would have a serious chance of winning her case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in the event that WADA decides to once again show her the exit. She could in fact easily demonstrate that she was in no way involved in the manipulation of data from the Moscow laboratory.
But Russia's recent efforts to rebuild its image would no longer carry much weight if it were proven that the data from the Moscow laboratory had been falsified. Return to prison, without going through square one.
