A habit. Sad but predictable. Two years after the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games, the flag and anthem of Russia will be absent from the Tokyo 2020 Games. They will be absent two years later, in Beijing, for the next winter Olympic meeting. Russia disappears from the landscape for the duration of an Olympics. On the scale of an athlete’s life, for an eternity.
Without any real surprise, the executive committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) followed the recommendation of its compliance review committee on Monday, December 9. He decided to exclude Russia from the international sports movement for a period of 4 years. A sanction without equal in history. The decision was taken unanimously by the 12 members of the executive committee.
Craig Reedie, the president of WADA, explained in a press release: the decision to exclude Russia illustrates the will of the agency “ to act firmly in the face of the doping crisis” in this country. “ For too long, Russian doping has damaged the cleanliness of sport, explained the Scottish leader, whose mandate at the head of WADA will end at the end of December. The Russian authorities' blatant violation of RUSADA's reintegration conditions, approved by the executive committee in September 2018, demanded a firm response. This is exactly what was done today. »
The sanction was intended to be exemplary. She is, without the slightest reservation. Russia will not be able to participate as a nation in the Olympic Games for a period of 4 years. Worse: his sidelining also concerns all “ major events » of the international sports calendar.
Russian officials linked to political authorities will be banned from major world competitions. They will also be prohibited from serving in international organizations that are signatories to the WADA World Code.
Russia will not be able to apply for the organization of global competitions, including the Olympic Games and the world championships, in all the disciplines for which the international federation has ratified the World Anti-Doping Code. She could also lose the events already assigned to her, including the men's volleyball world championships in 2022.
WADA assured that Russia would not be allowed to bid for the Olympic Games in 2032, that its candidacy “ either presented during or after » his 4-year suspension.
The case of the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar looks more confusing. Olivier Niggli, the Director General of the AMA, explained on Monday December 9 in Lausanne that “ the team that will be there will not be able to represent the Russian Federation”. But he also clarified that the sanction will not apply to the qualifying phases, scheduled for 2021 and 2022. Go figure.
Athletes ? They partially escape the sanction, but they will have to take an uncertain and tedious route to hope to see the Games and other major events. A WADA spokesperson explained: “ Russian athletes, if they want to participate in the Olympic or Paralympic Games or any other major event listed in the recommendations, will have to demonstrate that they are not involved in the doping programs described by the McLaren report or that their samples have not not been falsified. »
Clearly, they will have to individually prove their perfect integrity. Never simple. Russian athletics specialists are used to it, since the suspension of their federation in 2015. The other disciplines will have to submit to it in turn. At the same time, international federations will have to put in place a system to process eligibility requests from Russian representatives on a case-by-case basis.
WADA's decision can be challenged, within 21 days, before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). It can be done by the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA), or by the national Olympic committee. It could even be, in theory, by any international federation directly concerned. This last option seems unlikely.
Will Russia appeal? Likely, even almost certain. A decision will be made by RUSADA, one way or the other, at its meeting on December 19. Pavel Kolobkov, the Russian Minister of Sports, suggested that WADA's decision would be challenged before the CAS. According to his lawyers, the sanction would be contrary to the Olympic Charter. Youri Ganous, the boss of RUSADA, already maintains that the Russian's chances of winning the appeal would be zero. Possible, but not certain.
According to Jonathan Taylor, the chairman of the WADA Compliance Review Committee, the CAS could make a possible decision from the end of March. But the complexity of the procedure, and the army of lawyers that the Moscow regime would have to deploy, could cause the soap opera to last until June. In all cases, the four-year suspension period will begin from the CAS decision.
