Olympics 2018: IOC remains tough against Russia – Total exclusion hotly debated

The Oswald Commission of the IOC is taking tough action against Russia’s doping offenders and raising new hopes among proponents of a total exclusion.

The IOC is sticking to its verdict against Russia’s doping offenders – is there now complete exclusion? There can be no other decision for sports law expert Michael Lehner after the Oswald Commission sent out a signal with five further lifelong Olympic blocks against Russian athletes and a statement on Monday evening.

For Lehner, the Oswald Group has confirmed systematic doping in Russia with the association’s participation. If the athlete is banned for life, the fault of the system must be at least as great. That would be only logical”, the expert told the SID and demanded the exclusion of the major sports power from the Winter Games in Pyeongchang (9. till 25. February).

On Monday evening, Oswald and his team had for the first time also published a statement of judgement referring to the previously suspended cross-country skiing Olympic champion Alexander Legkov. From this it emerged that Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov and investigator Richard McLaren believe greatly. Both had attested that Russia had a doping system that had been in operation for years with the support of the institutions.

Rodchenkov was said to be a “credible witness”. The system he described for exchanging doping samples during the Winter Games in Sochi was understandable. There are also indications that bottles – as described by Rodchenkov – were illegally opened in order to exchange contents. A sample from Legkov is said to have had scratches that occurred when the containers were opened. It is also safe to say that athletes had been trained in the fraud system.

Oswald spoke of a “conspiracy”that had “infected and undermined the Olympic Games in the worst possible way”. However, the “adequate consequences” have not yet been drawn.

This, in turn, could be seen as an indication that the Commission is prepared for the 5th EDF. We believe that a tough crackdown on December 12 is the right thing to do. Then, on the basis of the results of a further study group, the question will be answered to what extent Russian politicians and authorities were involved in the fraud system and whether the huge empire will be completely excluded from the Winter Games.

Among the five athletes who were banned for life on Monday were the biathletes Olga Viluchina (Olympic silver in Sochi in the sprint and with the relay) and Jana Romanova (Season silver). In addition, the bobsleigh riders Alexei Negodailo and Dimitrij Trunenkov (both gold medalists) and skeleton driver Sergei Chudinov (5th place) were also affected.

All athletes promptly announced that they would challenge the IOC’s decision and go to CAS, the International Sports Court “What is happening now is a terrible injustice. Other athletes have said a lot about it, you just want to scream,”said Romanowa.

Lehner also considers the lifelong punishments to be “hard”for the athletes, especially since they are first offenders and the evidence is not always quite clear. In the last few weeks, a total of 19 Russian athletes have been put up with lifelong Olympic suspensions.

The Heidelberg scientist suspects nothing good. He could well imagine that the IOC wants to show an extra hard hand in the individual case decisions in order to be milder on the question of complete exclusion on Tuesday. However, according to Lehner, such a decision would be “just as bad as the doping offence itself”.