The Russian Sports Ministry said that the country is "financing an additional testing program for its track and field athletes who may compete in the Rio Olympics, a step to prove commitment to cleaning up the sport amid widespread doping allegations," according to Jack Stubbs of REUTERS. The ministry said on Friday that Russian athletes who may be competing in Rio "would now be tested at least three times by the world athletics governing body IAAF, in addition to all the anti-doping tests they may have to undergo in the normal course of their preparations." The ministry said that all samples "will be collected by foreign companies and analyzed in laboratories" accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, while planning of those tests will be carried out by UKAD, Britain's anti-doping agency (REUTERS, 5/21).
'CLEAR ANY DOUBTS': The CANADIAN PRESS reported Russia President Vladimir Putin "welcomed an investigation into Russian doping" on Friday and said that the country is "ready to offer full assistance" to WADA. Putin said, "It's necessary to clear any doubts. Sports must be free of doping, it must be honest, there must be honest competition. Only in that case it will be interesting for athletes, as well as millions of fans and spectators." He said that he "ordered the sports ministry to offer all possible assistance to WADA inspectors." At the same time, he "voiced hope that the inquiry has no relation to the current Russia-West strain." Putin: "It comes amid politically-driven restrictions against our country, but I hope that WADA's action has no relation to that" (CANADIAN PRESS, 5/20).
PROOF POSITIVE: REUTERS' Lidia Kelly reported Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that some Russian athletes "are likely to have tested positive for doping in the 2008 Olympic Games after their samples were re-examined." Thirty-one athletes from six sports could be banned from this year's Rio Olympics after "failing doping tests when 454 samples from the 2008 Beijing Games were re-examined." Mutko: "Now they will publish (a report for) 2008. I guess that our sportspeople will be there as well. We are talking about 12 countries here" (REUTERS, 5/20).
NOT THAT SIMPLE: In Washington, Will Hobson wrote the IOC has banned countries from previous Olympics, "but for geopolitical reasons." Kicking a country out of the Olympics for widespread doping violations "would set a different kind of precedent, though." University of Colorado professor Roger Pielke Jr. said, "It raises the question: Why Russia and why not other nations? If you’re Russia, you’ll say, ‘We’re the only country that’s been investigated, is that fair?’ And I think they have a point." Imposing a ban on all Russian athletes for the Rio Games would "require political willpower on behalf of the IOC and any officials involved with the decision." Pielke: "Russia is an important country for a lot of geopolitical reasons, and unnecessarily provoking or angering Vladimir Putin probably isn’t high on the to-do list for governments around the world" (WASHINGTON POST, 5/20).
