Olympic chiefs struggle to contain Russia doping controversy

The Olympic movement struggled to douse mounting wrangling over the Russia doping scandal as football prepared to launch the Rio Games on Wednesday.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach called for deep reforms of the World Anti-Doping Agency, while the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rebuffed appeals by 17 Russian rowers against their exclusion from the Rio Olympics.

With appeals involving a dozen other Russian swimmers, wrestlers and weightlifters still to be decided, the controversy over state-run doping blamed on the Russian government threatened to overshadow Friday’s opening ceremony.

Late on Tuesday, Brazilian police used tear gas against demonstrators trying to obstruct the tour of the Olympic flame in a Rio de Janeiro suburb.

Official competition starts on Wednesday with Marta’s Brazil taking on China in the top tie of the first day of women’s football matches. Zimbabwe’s women, ranked 93rd in the world, take on number-two ranked Germany in their first ever match at the Olympics.

On Thursday, football golden boy Neymar’s Brazil start their campaign for a first-ever football gold in a match against South Africa.

But sports politicians have been hogging the limelight in the run-up to the Games as they argue over how to answer Russia’s widespread doping.

The IOC president said the Russia scandal, which he has described as “contemptuous,” had exposed deficiencies in WADA.

“Recent developments have shown that we need a full review of the WADA anti-doping system,” he told an IOC session that continues Wednesday.

– Reedie offended –
“The IOC is calling for a more robust and efficient anti-doping system,” Bach added. “This requires clear responsibilities, more transparency, more independence and better worldwide harmonization.”

He blasted calls for a “nuclear option” blanket ban on Russian athletes.

Other IOC members launched direct attacks on WADA and veiled asides at its British chief Craig Reedie.

“It saddens me to say this, but at times WADA has seemed to be more interested in publicity and self-promotion rather than doing its job as a regulator,” Argentina’s IOC member Gerardo Werthein said.

Reedie said he was “personally offended” by Werthein’s comments, revealing that he confronted the Argentine during a break in the meeting.

“I heard a view this morning that the system is broken,” he told IOC delegates.

“I would like to say that all of it is not broken, part of it is broken and we should start identifying those parts that need attention.”

The international sports tribunal is holding special hearings in Rio to help the process of deciding how many Russians will compete in Rio.

CAS rejected a challenge by 17 Russian rowers against their exclusion from the Olympics over doping, a tribunal official told AFP.

Daniil Andrienko led 16 other rowers lodging a case against the World Rowing Federation and the IOC on Monday demanding to compete in Rio.

The tribunal must still give a verdict on appeals by three swimmers, a wrestler and the Russian weightlifting federation.

Russia has been at the center of a new doping storm after an independent investigator, Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, said in a report for WADA that there had been widespread state-backed doping in Russia.

In reaction, the IOC ordered sporting federations to draw up lists of Russians who could compete in Rio.

The federations have eliminated at least 117 competitors from the group of 387 athletes the Russian Olympic Committee had entered.

Once all federations have reported and CAS has ruled on the appeals, a three-member IOC panel will decide the final Russian lineup.

Canoeist Andrey Kraytor and wrestler Viktor Lebedev made their own appeals against the order along with swimmers Vladimir Morozov, Nikita Lobintsev and Yulia Efimova.

Decisions on the swimmers had been expected on Tuesday.

The Russian weightlifting federation is seeking to overturn its suspension by the International Weightlifting Federation over the doping. If successful, it said, the organization would launch a new case on behalf of eight weightlifters banned from the Olympics.

On Wednesday, the IOC session is expected to accept that climbing, karate, surfing, skateboarding and baseball-softball join the Olympic program at the 2020 Tokyo Games.