Russia is now in a race against time to prove itself compliant with clean sport with less than a year to go until next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
For a long time now, the country has been surrounded by a controversy involving its anti-doping system. In the months leading up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, several athletes in various sports were allowed to compete, although that was not the case for the Paralympic Games.
Most recently, it was discovered that Russians had manipulated the data they had handed over to World Anti-Doping Agency officials in light of an ongoing investigation into the Moscow lab.
However, that investigation found that despite no apparent drug cheats, the information with which investigators were provided had indeed been manipulated.
The lab data had been guarded by Russian law enforcement at the Moscow lab. WADA negotiated to acquire it in order to corroborate positive tests resulting from Russia’s doping program.
But that is not all that the Russians have been up to in these past few weeks.
Last month, Russian hackers apparently attacked the computer networks of at least 16 national and international sports and anti-doping organizations. The attacks were committed by state hackers and are the latest in a series of brazen Russian cyberattacks on foreign politicians, sporting officials and anti-doping regulators.
The hacks were timed as the WADA deals with the continued fallout from the 2015 Russian doping scandal, which caused many of its Olympic athletes to face a ban from the Games, while the country was excluded from taking part at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
Russia was reinstated as compliant earlier in February of this year, although they may face yet another Games ban after WADA officials discovered that Russian athletes failed drug tests had been erased from a critical data set.
In recent months, a WADA investigative team discovered inconsistencies between a data set it received from a whistleblower in 2017 and data submitted by Russian officials last January. Failed drug tests had been deleted from the Russian data set. Last month, WADA officials gave the Russians three weeks to explain the discrepancies. WADA has yet to determine whether it will accept Russia’s explanations.
Earlier in October, in fact, Yuri Ganus, head of the newly-reformed Russian Anti-Doping Agency, had indicated that Russia doctored “thousands” of samples, and he said the data could have been manipulated to protect the reputations of star athletes who now hold key government or sport administration positions.
With the recent series of scandals, maybe Russia should be considered twice in the run-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Clean sport should always be first in line, in spite of political views and opinions.
It almost seems as if the Russian situation is politicizing the Olympic Games themselves. It has gotten to a point where one does not know what to trust in terms of athletic results.
Just like with East Germany back in the day, Russia should face an indefinite suspension from international competition – they probably do not even care if they get suspended, or least that is the impression that the world is getting from them. If they can prove the contrary, when they do, they can be reconsidered.
Photo from Pixabay
