Russia faces Rio ban calls two weeks before Olympics
Quote:
Olympic organisers will face overwhelming pressure to ban the entire Russian team from Rio 2016 with a report into the country’s state-sponsored doping regime likely to show corrupt practices across a range of sports.
At least 10 national anti-doping organisations – including those in the United States, Germany, Japan and Canada – and more than 20 athlete groups representing Olympians from around the world have grouped together to request a complete ban on Russia in anticipation of Monday’s report.
Commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), the report is expected to confirm the shocking allegations made by Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of Moscow’s Wada-accredited anti-doping laboratory, that he effectively sabotaged the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, doping dozens of athletes, including at least 15 medallists, in the build-up to the event.
Rodchenkov claimed he was working as part of a government-orchestrated plot, with Russian security services helping him open and reseal supposedly tamper-proof doping sample containers before removing samples from his laboratory through a concealed hole in a wall at night. Russia denies all the allegations.
There is no doping within Russian volleyball as all of the tests done on players from the country have been conducted outside of the scandal-hit nation, International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) President Ary Graça claimed here today.
The Brazilian believes Russia's volleyball teams should therefore be able to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, even if calls for a blanket ban intensify when Richard McLaren's report is published.
Graça, who was elected as head of the FIVB in 2012, stressed he would not be in favour of Russian athletes being excluded from all sports competing at next month’s Games if allegations of a state-supported doping scheme at Sochi 2014 are proven.
At least 10 national anti-doping organisations – including those in the United States, Germany, Japan and Canada – and more than 20 athlete groups representing Olympians from around the world have grouped together to request a complete ban on Russia in anticipation of Monday’s report.
Imagine World Cup 2018 tho
