Yuliya Stepanova Says IOC Has Risked Deterring Doping Victims & Whistleblowers

Yuliya Stepanova, one of the key whistleblowers in exposing state-run doping in Russia has warned the leadership of the International Olympic Committee that they risk scaring away other potential witnesses to doping and other bad practices by refusing to allow her to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as a way of demonstrating a commitment to clean sport.

Stepanova and husband Vitaly Stepanov, former RUSADA agent, gave evidence to the World Anti-Doping Agency and the ARD German broadcaster and its Sportsschau investigations team led by Hajo Seppelt, that led to the Russian track and field team’s ban from the Olympic Games.

That ban was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in support of the IAAF ruling to keep Russia out in light of clear evidence of doping deception and cover-up that stretched from track to coach to doctor to official IOC-accredited laboratory and all the way up to the highest offices of the state.

The IAAF, in thanks to the Stepanovs for the critical role they played in helping to expose wrongdoing and give clean sport a chance, extended an invitation to the 800m runner for her to race in Rio.

The IOC then made two moves that knocked clean-sport ambitions on the head with a sledgehammer:

it rejected a WADA recommendation, in the wake of the McLaren Report, for a blanket ban on Russia across all sports for Rio 2016, given the seriousness and extent of the cheating uncovered in relation to the Winter Olympics of Sochi 2014 and other events; declared that no Russian from any sport with a doping ban to their name in the past could race in Rio; handed the issue back to FINA, which banned seven Russian swimmers, all of whom now have a reasonable chance of successful challenge at the CAS (cases pending that could place all swimmers with a previous sanction to their name back in the race in Rio. That would mean a stark reality: none of the WADA inquiries and investigation findings will have had a single impact on the swimming events at the 2016 Olympic Games. the IOC’s Ethics team rejected the notion of having Stepanova on the track racing but instead extended an invitation for her to sit in the VIP stands and watch. The decision was “based on wrong and untrue statements”, says Stepanova, and the the signal sent tells potential whistleblowers ‘don’t come forward because you’re story will be distorted and you will not get to do the thing you most wished to do: compete clean.

Stepanova* served a two-year ban from February 2013 for abnormalities in her biological passport. But her case and those of others in track and field also highlighted the coercion and corruption at the heart of Russian sport, with officials being paid to cover up results and get those who test positive off the hook.

The Russian whistleblower had told the IOC’s ethics commission: “It [allowing her to race in Rio] would show an example to the other athletes that may find themselves in a similar situation as I was that it is necessary to say the truth, that one needs to fight the system. It would show that if they act with good intentions, they will be listened to and even the IOC will support them.”

Meanwhile, 19 Russian rowers have been banned from competing at next month’s Olympics, taking the number of Russian athletes suspended this week to 37. The count includes eight athletes from canoeing, modern pentathlon and sailing and the seven swimmers and three rowers declared ineligible by their international federations on Monday.

One of the swimmers, Yuliya Efimova*, with a steroid positive and suspension to her name from the same year in which Stepanova was suspended, is now taking her case to the CAS on the basis that while she isn locked out by FINA and the IOC, others in precisely the same situation, such as Olympic gold medal winners Sun Yang* of China, and Park Tae-hwan*, of Korea, among other swimmers with a doping offence on their score, will get to race in Rio.

If Efimova wins her case, the chart of Russians barred, run by the BBC (right) online, would look quite different. There would be a strong likelihood of all four previously positive Russian swimmers being returned to the water, while still up in the air is the status of the three Russians barred from Rio without a positive test to their names, Vladimir Morozov (who yesterday wrote an open letter on Facebook to FINA president Julio Maglione seeking a change of heart), Nikita Lobintsev and Daria K. Ustinova*, the 17-year-old who at 14 received a warning for a positive doping test.

WADA president Sir Craig Reedie declared himself  “disappointed” with the IOC fudge, while Olympic discus champion Robert Harting led a chorus of protest from German athletes, coaches and officials against compatriot Thomas Bach, president of the IOC. Hating said he was “ashamed” of Bach, who replied that such comment, rather than the IOC’s decision, must have represented a rash moment of madness.

The statement from the Stepanovs – in Full

Unfair decision based on wrong and untrue information

Yesterday morning our time, we were informed by the IOC Director General, Mr. Christophe de Kepper, about the decision of the IOC EB to not allow Yuliya to compete at the Olympic Games in Rio. The decision was also transmitted in writing as follows:

We would like to react to this decision as follows.

1. Wrong and untrue statements

The decision is unfair as based on wrong and untrue statements.
Especially, the statement “Since Mrs Stepanova declined to compete as a member of the ROC Team, the IOC EB had to consider the question of whether an exception to the rules of the Olympic Charter is possible and appropriate” does not reflect reality. In the telephone interview with the Ethics …

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