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While the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF), the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and the Russian Olympic Committee are campaigning to return to international competition, athletes continue to test positive. This is not good show for the Russian sporting structure.
A Russian proverb, A successful man can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him, reads well. And in this case, Russia must have built something as substantial as the Great Pyramids by now.
Current Russian ban
While Russia is currently banned from sport due to its illegal incursion into Ukraine, the country is really banned due to doping. The war is a convenient reason to keep the backward country out.
Minister of Sports and Chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee, Michael Degtyarev, while speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum, stated that the main task for the entire professional Russian sports community is a “full-fledged return to international competition.”
“The contribution of the champions of our sporting nation is immense, and Russia, and before it the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire, have rightfully earned their place,” he said.
Whilst singing to the choir, Degtyarev avoided discussing how the champions were made. As the global community has come to know, it was solely based on mass cheating. The Russians, like the East Germans before them, created a systematic doping program that was ubiquitous.
On November 8, Athletics Illustrated published an article about how the World Anti-Doping Agency task force assigned to Russia had banned the final batch of athletes around the 2012 London Olympic Games. The doping was so thorough that the Russians sullied the integrity of the Games.
However, little to nothing has changed in Russia. For example, the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced last week that Aleksei Mokrov, a 20-year-old player, has been suspended under its Anti-Doping Program for a banned substance.
Mokrov tested positive for nandrolone.
Of course, as athletes always do, he emphatically denied that he was doping. Like Degtyarev, Mokrov was aggressively arrogant in his assertion that the lab failed.
He blamed the system, including the WADA-approved lab, as if he had some insight into the matter.
Meanwhile, both his A and B samples tested positive for nandrolone metabolites. Nandrolone is a drug that is classified as an anabolic agent under Section S1.1 of the 2024 WADA Prohibited List.
During his speech at the Forum, Degtyarev continued, “Our task is to return and take a place in accordance with our contribution. The process is moving forward inexorably. This year and last year, more than 3500 athletes have gained the right to participate in international competitions in 28 sports.”
No. Russia’s 3500 have not gained the right to participate in international competition. This statement is willful arrogance. The 3500 athletes may or may not have gained the privilege to participate, but they have not gained the right.
Doping ban lifted
The original eight-year doping ban was lifted on RusAF by the World Athletics Council in March 2023, after it was determined that Russia had met all the requirements of a detailed reinstatement plan.
However, a war-related ban continues. Despite the lifting of the doping ban, World Athletics has maintained a separate, indefinite ban on all Russian and Belarusian athletes, support personnel, and officials from its events due to the invasion of Ukraine. World Athletics President Sebastian Coe has stated that the sanctions would stay in place until a “peace agreement was reached.”
One option is to let RusAF and ROC back in on the premise that the Russian nation pays fully for 100 per cent of its athletes to be tested in advance, during and after international competition. If any athletes test positive, then the nation should be fully banned again. According to their Keystone Kops-style of sports management, Russia is not organized enough to get away without some positive tests.
Unlike other sports where Russian athletes have been allowed to compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes,” the Authorized Neutral Athlete program in athletics has been discontinued. The current World Athletics ban means that no Russian athletes can compete in World Athletics Series events, not even neutrally.
