What penalty should follow when doping is uncovered on a scale as industrial, as blatant and with such high-level official support as has been found against Russia? As we have reported this week, the International Olympic Committee is weighing up whether the damning independent report into Russia's systematic and state-run doping programme is sufficient to disqualify the country from competing in the Rio Olympics at all.
The IOC has already announced that Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko and other Russian ministry officials have been barred from attending the Rio Games, which begin in just over three weeks. It is now evaluating its options about whether to ban the entire national Olympic squad, including seeking expert legal opinions about how to strike the right balance between a collective ban of all Russian athletes versus the right to individual justice.
Both arguments have merit. Inevitably, there will be some within the Russian Olympic team who are entirely blameless and who have competed solely on their own merits rather than resorting to doping. Their dreams of glory and years of preparation will be dashed if they are subjected to a ban purely because of their nationality.
But what other penalty could come close to matching the scale of the cheating? With the help of a whistle-blower from the Russian camp, the report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency found widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian competitors and extensive cover-ups, particularly during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. It included the complicity of the FSB, the successor organisation to the KGB.
A decision is likely to be made after the Court of Arbitration for Sport hands down its ruling on the International Association of Athletics Federations’ earlier decision to ban all Russian competitors in the track and field categories in Rio. The CAS ruling is scheduled for today.
The Olympics are a model for international inclusion, so to exclude an entire country is against a core tenet. But when industrial-scale doping with government approval makes a mockery of this being a true test of human ability, one has to wonder if anything short of a total ban will be sufficient.
