Thirty-two years after Los Angeles '84, Russian athletics will not participate in the Summer Olympics. In truth, on that occasion, due to the boycott, the entire Soviet delegation deserted the Games, while this time the decision, imposed by the IAAF, the International Athletics Federation, and reaffirmed yesterday by the CAS ruling, is valid only for the athletics disciplines, i.e. for 68 athletes. At least for the moment, given that the IOC is evaluating the exclusion of Russia from all the Olympic sports of Rio 2016.
Meanwhile, it is certain that the Court of Arbitration for Sport has definitively rejected the appeal presented by the 68 Russian athletes confirming the decision taken by the IAAF on 17 June. The group asked to go to the Games on the basis of the principle of subjective responsibility, while the Court of Lausanne reaffirmed the correctness of the decision of the International Athletics Federation which had stopped athletics in Moscow en bloc after the diffusion of the first report of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), which at first mainly involved race walkers, who dominated the London 2012 edition.
The Wada report, released on Monday, has in fact qualified "beyond any reasonable doubt" the Russian one as "state doping", organized at the highest level and set to cover up over 300 cases of positivity in more than twenty disciplines. And what was established yesterday by the Tas of Lausanne - namely that the principle of subjective responsibility is not enough to readmit athletes - seems destined to influence the decision of the Olympic Committee chaired by Thomas Bach. So much so that the Kremlin is already crying out for a conspiracy: "I certainly regret this decision regarding all our athletes," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call with reporters. “The principle of collective responsibility is hardly acceptable, the Iaaf is completely corrupt, the doping scandal started from them,” Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko later attacked.
The only two athletes competing in Rio, under the banner of the IAAF, will be Julia Stepanova, a major accuser of the state system who was given a pass for her cooperation, e Darya Klischina, a long jumper who lives and trains in the United States. On the other hand, among others, the multiple pole vault champion remains out Yelena isinbayeva who commented to the Tass news agency as follows: "It is the funeral of athletics". Now for the other nations there is a hunt for the unexpected medal: according to estimates and forecasts, with the exception of the Russian athletes, 63 medals are at stake, of which twenty are gold.
