Doping summit to tackle further measures ahead of Rio Games

Associated Press

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND

With a ban on Russia’s track and field athletes already in place, Olympic leaders are looking at further anti-doping measures ahead of the Rio de Janeiro Games.

The status of other sports in Russia, as well as other countries and sports with poor doping records, could come under scrutiny at an Olympic summit in Lausanne on Tuesday.

The sports leaders are also expected to discuss guidelines for the process, approved by the IAAF, which would allow a small group of Russian athletes who live and undergo rigorous drug-testing outside the country to apply to compete as “neutral” athletes in Rio without any Russian flag.

The meeting comes four days after track and field’s world governing body upheld the ban, first imposed in November, on Russia’s track and field team for a “systematic and deeply-rooted culture of doping.”

The International Olympic Committee said Saturday it “fully respects” the decision and acknowledged that the IAAF has control over the eligibility of track and field athletes for the games.

The statement appeared to rule out any chance of the IOC intervening to overturn or water down the decision or somehow give the Russians another route into the games.

The IOC went even further, saying it would undertake “further far-reaching measures in order to ensure a level playing field for all the athletes” competing in Rio. It said the meeting would discuss the situation of countries that are not in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s global rules.

In addition to Russia, Kenya — home to many of the world’s top distance runners — and Spain are currently deemed non-compliant by WADA. Kenya has been hit by dozens of positive drug cases in recent years and has struggled to set up a credible anti-doping system.

The doping crisis extends beyond Russia’s track and field athletes and beyond Russia itself. WADA President Craig Reedie said Monday that the agency has started investigating allegations of doping by the Russian and Chinese swimming teams.

Russian athletes — including 16 from track and field — have provided 22 of the positive samples from the Beijing and London retests.

Still looming heavily over the Russians is an ongoing WADA investigation into allegations made by Moscow’s former drug lab chief, Grigory Rodchenkov, that he was involved in a state-backed conspiracy to dope Russian athletes ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and swap tainted samples for clean ones during the games.