Cancel Team OAR

It was announced today in a rather shocking way that Russia's participation in the next four years of high-level competitions, including the Olympic Games, will not take place as the country has officially been banned for four years by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for failures to comply with WADA's demands for Russia's Anti Doping Agency (RUSADA) to hand over all data to WADA. This is a shocking turn of events as there was little belief that WADA would show any teeth towards Russia, but they made it clear today that Russia's long-standing problems with doping in sports will no longer stand.

WADA president Sir Craig Reedie chose some rather strong language in making the announcement today, stating,

"For too long, Russian doping has detracted from clean sport. The blatant breach by the Russian authorities of Rusada's reinstatement conditions demanded a robust response.

"That is exactly what has been delivered.

"Russia was afforded every opportunity to get its house in order and rejoin the global anti-doping community for the good of its athletes and of the integrity of sport, but it chose instead to continue in its stance of deception and denial."

Russia has 21 days to officially file an appeal which would then go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) who would make recommendations of their own based on the evidence both sides presented.

Quite frankly, I'm with WADA vice-president Linda Helleland who said today that the ban was "not enough", adding "I wanted sanctions that can not be watered down. We owe it to the clean athletes to implement the sanctions as strongly as possible."

I know WADA may not have this power, but I'd suggest cancelling the participation of any athlete from Russia in any high-level event regardless of whether those athletes are clean, dirty, or just there to watch. Zero athletes from Russia. None. Zip. Zilch. Hear me out on this.

In 2015, RUSADA was declared non-compliant after it was alleged that there was corruption within the ranks of RUSADA which was allowing state-sponsored doping in athletes in the sport of track-and-field. The McLaren Report, written by Professor Richard McLaren and commissioned by WADA, went in great detail about the non-compliance of RUSADA and state-sponsored tactics used to avoid detection in the drug testing processes right through to the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games after former RUSADA official Grigory Rodchenkov stepped forward as a whistleblower alleging the corruption within RUSADA and Russian sport.

In 2016, McLaren and WADA produced Part II of this report which further indicted Russia in its long-standing participation in a state-sponsored doping process with the report showing information from 2011 to 2015 that more than 1000 Russian athletes across a number of Olympic and Paralympic sports were involved - either by choice or unknowingly - in state-sponsored doping infractions followed by RUSADA's manipulation of the data and the cover-up to keep these results from seeing the light of day.

That's now EIGHT YEARS - 2011 through to 2019 - that this state-sponsored garbage has been happening in Russia. There is no way that Russia should get any credit for any athletic achievement by clean athletes who compete at these events since they've basically screwed the system for the better part of a decade while clean athletes from Russia have had to endure years of accusations of cheating despite their clean records in their respective sports. These athletes have dedicated themselves to their crafts, and they deserve better than to have Russia celebrate their achievements while they've been competing fairly.

In saying the above, I propose that all Russian athletes be banned. This is a systemic problem that runs deeper than the level the athletes are on, but it's up to the athletes to ensure they are clean when entering competitions. If the system is going to be cleaned up, it starts and ends with the athletes as they need to ensure that their colleagues and teammates are playing clean as the first step. That collective bunch of athletes can then demand that the coaches and trainers are following the letter of the law when it comes to doping, and those coaches and trainers can then go back to the Russian federations for the sport and demand that the federations who report to RUSADA are holding RUSADA to a higher standard. Finally, RUSADA, who has played a major role in this four-year ban, needs to have regular checks and balances done on itself and by other independent governing bodies to ensure that they are no longer the problem with Russian athletics.

Is this a harsh penalty? Absolutely, but the length of time that the Russian have simply been ignoring the rules of fair play deserves a harsh penalty in order to force immediate change in Russia. Participation in high-level events will only be allowed once the system is clean and the rules of fair play are restored. If there are still systemic problems four years from now, the ban shall continue for as long as WADA and the international sports community see fit.

Apparently, I'm not the only person to think WADA needed to impose harsher sanctions as British powerlifter and Paralympic medallist Ali Jawad told the BBC, "The only way we can change that is meaningful change and what kind of message does this send out to the future generation? That, actually, state-sponsored doping, we are going to treat it softly."

Travis Tygart, chief executive of the US Anti-Doping Agency, also feels that WADA should have come down harder on Russia. He said, "Wada promised the world back in 2018 that if Russia failed yet again to live up to its agreements, it would use the toughest sanction under the rules. Yet, here we go again; Wada says one thing and does something entirely different."

For Russia and Russian athletes, this decision comes down to one thing: if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. By allowing clean Russian athletes to compete in events, we're telling Russia to police itself with a slight slap on the wrist as it has evidently failed to do any policing for the last eight years of competitions. That stops here and now with a full ban on all Russian athletes at any competition. While it may seem harsh to the clean athletes in Russia, clean Russian athletes need to help themselves by levelling the playing field once more by demanding that their home country clean up its act.

If I had my way, there will be no "Independent Olympic Athletes", no Olympic Athletes from Russia, nor any other designation that allows athletes from Russia to compete in high-level events. Along with this, transfer requests by Russians to alternate countries will also be categorically denied just as Russia now cannot host, or bid for, or be granted the right to host any major events for the next four years, including the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, after the WADA ban today. It's your mess, Russia, and you're going to learn to clean it up if you want to play on the world stage once again.

Major indiscretions come with major consequences, Russia. That's how life works.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!