2016 Summer Olympics Boycott, nyet, but Russians admit to some wrongdoings

Associated Press

MOSCOW

With an Olympic boycott ruled out, Russia is planning to at least partially admit it has a doping problem.

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told The Associated Press on Thursday that there will “not in any case” be a boycott of next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

A short time later in a separate interview, the acting president of the Russian track federation told the AP he is ready to own up to some of the charges leveled in the World Anti-Doping Agency commission’s massive report on doping in the country.

“We admit some things, we argue with some things, some are already fixed, it’s a variety,” said Vadim Zelichenok, declining to provide further details. “It’s not for the press.”

The governing body of track and field is expected to rule Friday on whether to suspend Russia from competition because of the doping scandal. If Russia is banned, the country’s track and field team could be excluded from next year’s Olympics.

Monday’s damning report by the WADA commission recommended that the Russian track federation be suspended, saying its athletes and officials were involved in “extensive” use of performance-enhancing drugs, obstructed doping tests and helped to cover up drug use. The report said Zelichenok “refused to cooperate” with investigators.

Even if Russia’s track and field team is banned, Mutko told the AP that the country has no intention of boycotting the Olympics.

“Russia is against a boycott. Russia is against political interference in sport,” Mutko said. “Understand that Russia is a dependable partner of the international Olympic movement.”

Mutko also appealed for Russia’s track team to be allowed to compete, arguing that a blanket ban would unfairly punish clean athletes.

“It will be painful for those athletes with clean consciences who could compete, that’s the first thing. And the second thing is that it goes against the spirit of the WADA code,” Mutko said. “The commission itself writes about it in its report. It’s about protecting the athletes with clean consciences.”

During the Cold War, the United States and allies boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest at the Soviet Union. Four years later, there was a Soviet-led boycott of the Olympics in Los Angeles.

IOC President Thomas Bach, meanwhile, met with Russian Olympic Committee head Alexander Zhukov and other officials in Lausanne, Switzerland, amid signs that both sides were working toward an agreement that could avoid a ban.

Bach has said sanctions are up to the IAAF and WADA, but also stressed that the IOC will be ready to strip any medals from Olympic athletes mentioned in the report who are found guilty of doping.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted clean athletes should be allowed to compete and asked Russian sports officials to carry out an internal investigation into the allegations made in the doping report. Mutko said Russia would provide constant updates about its investigation.