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Since 2015, the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) has driven off the roadmap to reinstatement so many times that one can hardly be blamed for being skeptical about their ability to come clean. Cheating; it’s their culture.
However, the World Athletics Council has approved a new plan of reinstatement.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe made it clear that that process will be an arduous one. And so it should be.
Coe told Inside the Games this was “not the end but the beginning of a long journey, with an incredible amount of work for RusAF to do to rebuild trust”.
Follow the diabolical path of destruction here>>
World Athletics’ Russia Taskforce, independent experts, and the RusAF created a 31-page reinstatement plan, which has been made public on World Anti-doping Agency Director Rune Andersen’s recommendation.
In place will be an independent anti-doping department within RusAF. They will have to fund the program themselves.
Currently, no Russian athletes can compete internationally, not even as independents. At this time, the latest fiasco is still under investigation.
The case of Danil Lysenko
Russian high jumper Danil Lysenko may receive a ban of up to eight years after Russian officials apparently obstructed an investigation into the world indoor high jump champion.
Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s Yury Ganus told TASS, the Russian news agency, that “all steps taken by the previous executive management at the Russian Athletics Federation (RUSAF) led to the fact that he would continue performing as an athlete only after an eight-year period.”
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) recommended that the ban on Russia continues. In addition to being exposed in a documentary about bribes, cover-ups, and general corruption from the top of Russian athletics and Russian anti-doping, the nation was thrown into further embarrassment when they tampered with data located on a computer in their Moscow laboratory that was central in the original doping scandal.
Several officials have were banned in February
Chaos in Russian continues to hemorrhage officials and athletes as doping and tampering continue to dominate the Russian sporting landscape. Five more were suspended for at least four more years.
A disciplinary tribunal has upheld charges laid by the AIU against former RusAF President Dmitry Shlyakhtin, and former board member Artur Karamyan and three others.
It would be premature to reinstate Russia. The road to redemption should be a long and arduous process. The athletes and officials have shown no sense of remorse or behavioral change since the first stories first emerged about systemic doping and corruption in Russian sport.
