Sport policy – Russian return arouses massive mistrust of doping – Sport

Frankfurt / Main (AP) – Léa Krüger’s verdict on Russia, doping and distrust is as hard as a saber blow.

“A return of Russia to world sport will massively endanger equal opportunities and the integrity of competitions,” said the 27-year-old fencer, who sits on the board of directors of the National Anti-Doping Agency. The multiple German judo champion Igor Wandtke is also very suspicious: “It’s hard to believe that they are clean.” The state doping busted in 2014 and, as a result, the manipulation of doping data in the Moscow laboratory have not been forgotten.

This alone not only arouses the current major doubts. Since the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, the Russians and Belarusians have continued to be controlled – but restricted. On behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), the International Testing Agency (Ita) only carried out 179 competition tests (2022: 943) last year – in which both countries were excluded from sporting events worldwide. The number of training controls has remained almost the same: according to Ita, there were 1055 tests in 2021 and 943 in 2022. However, the test agency only has contracts with 24 of the 32 Olympic summer sports associations.

There is currently no cooperation with the Russian anti-doping agency Rusada and Ita because Rusada is still suspended despite the expiry of the two-year ban due to doping data fraud. “Our confidence in the independence of the anti-doping system in Russia is still very low,” emphasized Wada President Witold Banka at the end of May.

“Black Box” Russland

“Warring, sprawling Russia also seems to be classified by experts as a black box,” said Maximilian Klein, director of sports policy and strategy at the Athletes Germany interest group. In particular, the challenging logistics are unlikely to be free of the risk of manipulation. “It’s difficult for us to imagine whether and how an anti-doping system with integrity can work there under these aspects,” he said. Rusada’s handling of the case of figure skater Kamila Valiyeva, who acquitted her despite a positive doping test, contributed to this.

“The state-orchestrated doping system and the lax handling of world sport with the scandal triggered one of the biggest crises of confidence in the anti-doping fight and the integrity of world sport, not only among athletes,” explained Klein. “Russia systematically cheated the athletes. In our opinion, this loss of trust continues to this day.”

The distrust was fueled by the latest Wada announcement that 203 Russian athletes were subsequently transferred from the Moscow analysis laboratory after the manipulated doping files had been evaluated. 182 cases are still under investigation. A look at the doping sanctions list of the World Athletics Federation (as of May 1) raises doubts that Russia has learned from the past: More than 100 runners, jumpers and throwers from the country are there with bans until 2027 on it.

Despite this, World Athletics lifted the Russian FA’s suspension for systematic doping in March after seven and a half years. At the same time, the world association decreed that Russia was not allowed to take part in international competitions because of the war of aggression against the recommendation of the International Olympic Committee – as was the case at the 2022 World Cup in Eugene. Likewise, Russians and Belarusians are excluded from the European Games from June 21 to July 2 in Kraków, where 7,000 starters from around 50 countries will compete in 29 sports.

Swimming Association cares about equal opportunities

For the German Swimming Federation, the issue of doping, along with the war of aggression against Ukraine, is an important reason to consider Russia’s return to the world stage to be inappropriate. The world association World Aquatics will decide on this at the congress on the fringes of the World Championships in Japan in mid-July. “Since it was heard that the important out-of-competition controls in Russia in particular were not carried out unannounced in sufficient numbers, the question of equal opportunities would naturally arise if Russia was re-admitted,” said DSV sports director Christian Hansmann.

Judoka Wandtke, who has to play with Russians again in his sport, doesn’t have much hope for fair play. “I’m aware that in my sport some athletes dope,” he said. In this respect, it makes no difference whether the Russians are back: “The illusion of a completely fair and clean sport is an illusion.”

By the way, since the outbreak of the war, Ukrainian athletes have been tested on almost the same scale – mostly outside their country. In 2021, they underwent 239 tests in training and 149 in competition. Last year they completed 255 training controls and 231 at sporting events, said Ita. However, the agency also pointed out that the Wada Code does not require a minimum of doping tests for an athlete.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:230606-99-953654/3