The President of the Russian Olympic Committee commented on the decision rendered following hearings on the WADA-RUSADA dispute.
Stanislav Pozdnyakov:
– We do not welcome the decision to partially uphold WADA’s case and rule RUSADA non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code.
Our position is initially based on the fact that there are no grounds for full or partial punishment of RUSADA and, as a consequence, no sanctions can be applied against the other participants of the process.
We believe that in this regard, the court did not fully take into account the stated arguments and deliberations.
I would like to note that WADA insisted on imposing sanctions against Russian sport for a 4-year period. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has ruled to reduce the suspension period to two years, starting from today.
Thus, in terms of the Olympic Games, this excludes the 2024 Summer Olympics. All our further steps and actions in this context are only in relation to the Olympic Games in Tokyo and Beijing.
I think that the most important result of our joint work with colleagues is that CAS did not support WADA in applying collective responsibility measures and did not introduce additional criteria for the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as the World Championships.
The ban on the participation of government representatives in these sports events raises even more questions. At the same time, there is a stipulation that this ban does not apply if government officials are invited by the leadership of the host country.
The ruling by CAS directly mentions the President of the Russian Federation.
To be honest, I cannot imagine or think of a logical justification for the fact that the Arbitral Panel supported the demand of an individual non-governmental organization (WADA) to extend restrictive measures to the head of a sovereign state.
Here, of course, we take a firm position on the inadmissibility of such an approach.
Now, regarding the use of Russia’s flag and anthem. On the one hand, CAS restricts the use of the state flag of the Russian Federation and the anthem for 2 years — at the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and World Championships, respectively.
All other competitions, including Youth Olympic events, European Games and Championships, as well as other multisport competitions, selection events and qualifying tournaments, are not subject to these restrictions.
On the other hand, the word ‘Russia’ can be used under certain conditions which will allow to retain the national identity of our Olympic team.
Apart from that, several other questions still remain. We plan to immediately begin consultations in order to resolve all issues.
At the moment, we can definitely say that clean Russian athletes can take part in the Olympic Games without any restrictions. And they can do so as part of a team formed by the National Olympic Committee.
There were no complaints about the ROC and there are no complaints – we continue to work in accordance with the provisions of the Olympic Charter.
The status of the ROC regarding the ruling handed down by CAS has not changed. Moreover, CAS did not uphold WADA’s demand for sanctions against representatives of the leadership of the Russian Olympic Committee.
Thus, there are no restrictions on participating in international sports events in relation to athletes and leaders of national or international sports federations who are at the same time members of the ROC Executive Board.
