Russia seeks Olympic doping compromise to compete in Rio
By Paul Kelso
Last Updated: 01/06/16 1:20pm
Russian may evade a total ban on its athletes competing at the Rio Olympics by proposing a compromise that would allow some track-and-field competitors to enter the Games even if the Russian Athletics Federation remains excluded from international competition.
Sky News understands that the potential compromise has been discussed at a senior level by government and sporting officials in Moscow.
Officials at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) have also been studying their rule books to see how a compromise might work.
The Russian athletics federation (ARAF) was suspended by world athletics' governing body in November last year following the revelation of "state-supported" doping.
The IAAF will meet to decide whether to lift the ban in time for Rio on June 17.
The Russian Government has denied involvement, but further allegations of doping at the Sochi Winter Olympics, and the obstruction of drug testers currently working in Russia, has made a return in time for Rio harder to justify.
There is concern however within the IOC, and among some members of the IAAF Council, at the impact of a total ban on clean athletes. Some consider it a blunt instrument that would punish those who had done nothing wrong.
IOC president Thomas Bach appeared to open the door to a compromise in a series of statements earlier this month, suggesting that even athletes from banned federations could compete in Rio.
High-profile athletes including pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva have said they will pursue legal action to allow them to compete in Rio.
The counter-argument is that the institutionalised doping revealed in the last year deserves the harshest punishment.
A compromise may be possible because the Olympics are overseen by the IOC, rather than sporting federations such as the IAAF, and teams are selected and entered by national Olympic committees.
So athletes who are demonstrably clean, to the satisfaction of the IOC, could be selected by the Russian Olympic Committee and compete even if ARAF remains banned.
Defining "clean" is fearsomely difficult however. Athletes may be required to have passed independent tests, but recent re-testing of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics - which have uncovered more than 20 Russians suspected of doping - demonstrate that testing has its limits.
Russians would not compete under an Olympic flag, as some stateless athletes have in the past. Russia would be unlikely to accept such a condition, and the risk to the IOC of athletes turning out to be cheats would be enormous.
One potential barrier to the compromise is that the athletics events at the Olympics, while under the IOC umbrella, are sanctioned and run by the IAAF. Officials are examining whether this would give the athletics body a second and final veto over Russian participation.
The compromise proposal comes with the stakes high for all concerned in the gravest crisis to hit the Olympic movement in years.
Sebastian Coe, the IAAF President, is under pressure to demonstrate he is reforming the organisation, and extending the ban on Russia would represent a powerful statement of intent. Coe has described the decision as a "come-to-Jesus moment" for the sport.
Bach has much at stake too. He developed a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who invested an estimated $50m (£34.6m) in staging the Sochi Winter Olympics and sees sport as a crucial plank of Russian identity.
A solution that allowed all three to save face could have attractions, certainly for Putin, who in a sign of the importance he places on Olympic participation has avoided lashing out at the external forces he traditionally cites as enemies of Russia as he seeks a way back for his athletes.
