Fears that the IOC "is cooking up a deal to allow the majority of the 386-strong Russian team to compete at the Rio Games intensified on Wednesday," with longstanding IOC member Dick Pound breaking ranks to warn the organization was "very reluctant" to issue a blanket ban, according to Sean Ingle of the London GUARDIAN. Privately "there appears strong support for the views of Pound," whose 325-page report into Russia’s doping problem led to the country’s track and field athletes "being banned last year." One figure in int'l sport said that the IOC’s reluctance to take decisive action on Russia was "spineless," while another "lamented the lack of leadership" from IOC President Thomas Bach. On Thursday the situation "will become much clearer" when the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne issues its verdict on whether to uphold the ban on 68 Russian track and field athletes from competing in Rio. The IOC will be "watching the verdict closely." It has "decided against a quick decision over whether to exclude Russia from Rio" while it waits for legal advice over whether such a ban would be enforceable as well as CAS's decision (GUARDIAN, 7/20).
'READING BETWEEN THE LINES': REUTERS' Shravanth Vijayakumar reported Pound, who was WADA's first president, said that "he feared the IOC was loath to take such a step, leaving doubts over any athlete participating under the Russian flag." Pound: "I do get the impression, reading between the lines, that the IOC is for some reason very reluctant to think about the total exclusion of the Russian team." Pound felt the clean athletes in Russia "would suffer as the systemic state-sponsored doping in the country" would make it "very hard" to determine whether any Russian athlete was clean. He said, "There may or may not be clean Russian athletes, but if you look at the McLaren report it is pretty clear it was endemic. ... It is going to be very hard to satisfy anybody that someone in that system who is at a level that gets him or her to an Olympic Games is in fact clean" (REUTERS, 7/20).
NO BOYCOTT: REUTERS' Dmitry Rogovitskiy reported Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov said on Wednesday that Russia had "no intention of boycotting the Rio Games to protest against the way a doping scandal was being handled," saying politics had no place in sport. The IOC said on Tuesday that it would consider banning Russia. Russia "is strongly opposed to such a ban" and Zhukov said that any "unilateral decision to quit the Games would also be wrong." He said, "We are categorically against any boycotts for political or any other reasons. Boycotts lead only to the collapse of the Olympic movement" (REUTERS, 7/20).
FINAL DECISION: The AP's James Ellingworth reported Zhukov said that he "expects a final decision by Sunday on whether the entire Russian team will be banned" from next month's Rio Games over doping allegations. Zhukov said that his committee "did not discuss the McLaren report at its meeting, although he also did not rule out legal action if Russia is hit with a total ban" from Rio (AP, 7/20). USA TODAY's Nancy Armour wrote the IOC is "over-looking perhaps the most important factor of all. ... Its bottom line." If it is going to take the IOC worrying about "alienating sponsors to do the right thing, so be it." Assistant Dir of the Sports Business Institute at USC Michael Colangelo said, "Once the money starts to dry up, people start to make decisions." He added, "If sponsors were to come out against Russia's involvement or make any official statements toward what's going on with the Russian doping scandal it could force the IOC to make a decision sooner rather than later." Visa and Coca-Cola, two of the IOC's "largest and most visible sponsors, declined to comment." McDonald's, Samsung and P&G also "didn't respond." Companies have far too much "invested to start rattling cages now." But sponsors "don't like stench, either." Armour: "If the entire image of the Olympics becomes tarnished, however, you can be sure that sponsors won't stay silent for long" (USA TODAY, 7/20).
