The independent association Athletes Germany has reacted “totally shocked” to the IOC’s decision to reintegrate Russia into the Olympic family.
On Wednesday, three days after the end of the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, the International Olympic Committee lifted the suspension of Russia’s National Olympic Committee.
“The decision is not conclusive and understandable for the athletes,”said the club, which was founded last October, on Friday and called on the IOC to take tougher action against national federations and national Olympic committees in the event of violations of the doping regulations.
Previously, the Association of National Anti-Doping Agencies and the World Anti-Doping Agency had already criticised the IOC decision. Dagmar Freitag, chairwoman of the sports committee in the Bundestag, also reacted with incomprehension after two Russian athletes were convicted of doping in Pyeongchang. Friday spoke of a “disaster” and a “slap in the face of all clean athletes”.
The ROC was suspended by the IOC in December last year because of the state doping scandal surrounding the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. In Pyeongchang 168 Russian athletes started under a neutral flag. The IOC lifted the suspension after no further positive doping findings of “Olympic Athletes from Russia”, as the Russian team called themselves at the games in Pyeongchang, had been found.