Olympia 2018: Bach: Possible Russia sanctions until the end of the year

IOC President Thomas Bach calls for understanding for the delays in dealing with the Russian doping scandal and holds out the prospect of possible measures by the end of the year. Originally, the German President of the IOC had announced a decision until the start of the World Cup winter this month.

It is important to understand that the investigative commission responsible is not dealing with normal doping cases, Bach wrote in a letter to the members of the Olympic Movement published by the IOC on Thursday.

Because of the complexity of the cases, a legally indisputable method of providing evidence had to be developed using forensic analysis, Bach wrote:”This time-consuming process took several months.”

Bach emphasized that the reports prepared by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren were not suitable for dealing with individual cases.

In two reports, McLaren had shown Russia to have a government-run doping system, from which more than 1000 athletes benefited – including during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

There, containers containing doping samples had been opened with the help of the secret service and the urine of the athletes had been exchanged or manipulated.

According to Bach, the hearing of the suspicious Russian Sochi starters is to be concluded by the end of November, and results are to be communicated individually and directly. Possible overarching measures against Russia are then to follow.

“I hope that the IOC executive will be able to make a decision this year, because nobody wants this serious matter to overshadow the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang,”Bach wrote.

This danger is quite real. In addition to Bach’s letter, the IOC also published a letter to Angela Ruggiero, chairperson of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, written by Denis Oswald, the head of the Commission.

In it, Oswald stressed that the decision to start the games in Pyeongchang (9. till 25. February) is the responsibility of the international trade associations.

By transferring responsibility to the associations, the IOC had caused chaos before and during the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, but all participants were under much greater time pressure after the publication of the first McLaren report in mid-July 2014.

At that time, the IOC had waived a collective punishment against Russia. It is unlikely that such a measure will be taken with regard to Pyeongchang.

The IOC had recently rejected reports as “speculative” that Russia would only be sanctioned with a heavy fine.

With regard to the security situation on the Korean peninsula, Bach emphasised that “they are in constant contact with political and sporting leaders from different countries”, that they have signalled their support and that no security warnings have been issued so far.