RUSSIA BLASTS DOUBLE STANDARDS BUT WON'T BOYCOTT OLYMPICS
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 29 Jul 2016
Bolt and Gatlin.
In a clear case of double standards the International Amateur Athletic Federation has allowed a trio of American sprinters tainted by previous bans due to failed drug tests to compete in Rio de Janeiro?s Olympic Games while banning all Russian athletes who had previously served doping bans. Critics in Moscow assailed the double standards adopted by the International Olympic Committee.
The Americans somehow cleared to run in Rio appear bent in scuttling Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt?s swansong with AFP claiming ?athletics stumbles through the moral maze created by the Russian doping scandal.?
The most prominent of the American sprinters is Justin Gatlin who was twice suspended for failed drug tests but will be in Rio and is considered the biggest threat to Bolt in the 100 meters gold medal chase.
The 34 year old Gatlin is regarded as the most obvious symbol of the logical confusion undermining the Rio Olympics in which some athletes convicted of doping offenses have been cleared to compete while the Russians will be banned. In the battle for the 200 meters gold medal Bolt is likely to be challenged by LaShawn Merritt who previously served a 21 month ban after he tested positive for a banned steroid in 2010.
The 30 year old Merritt is the fastest man in the world over 200 meters this year.
The third American sprinter granted a reprieve is Tyson Gay who returns to the Olympics as a member of the US 4x100 meter relay quartet after completing a one year ban for testing positive for a banned steroid. Gatlin took a swipe at media earlier this year when he accused reporters of aiming to be more creative by sensationalizing storylines. Gay, one of the few men to have beaten Bolt over 100m, tested positive in 2013 and was suspended for only one year by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after cooperating with authorities even as Bolt suggested he should have been banned for life instead claiming ?The message should be: 'If you cheat, you're going to be kicked out of the sport'."
Despite the double standards The Moscow Times reported that Russia will not boycott the upcoming Olympic Games in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
Peskov said that ?Russia has always looked down on [Olympic] boycotts.? He promised to use ?all possible mechanisms? to ensure the participation of Russian track and field athletes at the upcoming Olympics.
Peskov said there was little time left until the judicial decisions, and that Russian athletes and those who defend their interests will use all tools at their disposal to ensure their participation in Rio, Russian media reported. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has, so far, exempt two Russian athletes from its blanket ban on the Russian track and field team. There are reportedly 136 Russian track and field athletes seeking ?exceptional eligibility.?
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