Olympics
AT LAST, WADA TEAM GAINS ACCESS TO RUSSIA ANTI-DOPING LABORATORY
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has confirmed their three-person team has started work to retrieve crucial data from the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s (RUSADA) Laboratory in Moscow and have reported “no issues” so far.
In a statement sent to insidethegames the global anti-doping body confirmed their team have successfully gained access to the facility in the Russian capital and have begun retrieving data from the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS).
WADA had initially hoped to take control of the LIMS before a December 31 deadline, on the assumption it will help catch more cheats.
According to Russian state news agency TASS, Russia’s Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov has said several Russian officials are also working alongside WADA in the lab.
“WADA experts arrived yesterday and today they have started their work jointly with a group of Russian experts,” he said.
“Representatives of the Russian Investigative Committee and of the laboratory are also participating in this process.
“They have started work on the installation of the equipment and of the data transfer block.
“The work is done under a complete coordination as we have previously discussed all technical and organisational details, which are in full compliance with the criminal procedure code and all WADA procedures.
“The work is in full swing at the moment.”
On their first attempt to retrieve the data last month, WADA’s five-person team was blocked by the Russian authorities who claimed their equipment had not been certified under the country’s law.
Access to the facility before December 31 was a compulsory condition set when the WADA Executive Committee controversially lifted the suspension of RUSADA on September 20 and with the deadline having now elapsed, calls have been made for them to be declared non-compliant again.
A smaller expert team returned to Moscow yesterday as the Kremlin announced an “understanding” had been reached.
WADA have now confirmed their team have gained access to the lab 10 days after the initial deadline, but there are still fears that the data could have been manipulated.
Sir Craig Reedie, the WADA President, has said that if the trip is successful “it will break a long impasse and will potentially lead to many cases being actioned”.
He added, however, that the organisation is still working on the basis that the December 31 deadline was missed and he appeared to suggest RUSADA could still be declared non-compliant even if the data is acquired this time.
WADA are considering “all the consequences” that missing the deadline could bring, he said.
Critics have raised concerns that even if WADA do leave with the LIMS data this time around, it may have been tampered with by the Russian authorities.
“This appears to be the sequel to the cat and mouse game between WADA and Russia that we have unfortunately come to expect,” Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said in a statement.
“We are all holding our breath this is not going to be a whitewash and WADA actually gets the data on the roughly 9,000 presumptive positive test results on over 4,000 Russian athletes that hopefully have not been destroyed.”
Irrespective of the condition of the data, WADA’s Compliance Review Committee (CRC) is set to meet to discuss the situation on Monday and Tuesday (January 14 and 15) in Montreal, after which they will make a recommendation on whether to declare Russia non-compliant once again to WADA’s Executive Committee.
The Executive Committee will then consider the recommendation via a conference call.
There have been widespread calls for the CRC to meet sooner than January 14 and 15, with critics suggesting Russia have been handed a “two-week extension” in which to comply.
Those calls have been dismissed by the CRC’s head Jonathan Taylor, though, who claimed that by following “due process” and giving Russia time to respond there will be less risk of legal challenges.
Athletes at the Milano Cortina Winter Games have raced through their free condom supply ahead of Valentine’s Day, leaving dispensers empty on Saturday, with more than a week of competition remaining.
According to a report by Reuters, organisers had distributed around 10,000 condoms across the city and mountain accommodation sites, continuing a long-standing Olympic tradition aimed at promoting safe relationships among competitors living in close quarters.
By Saturday, however, supplies had run out — adding Milan to a growing list of Olympic hosts where demand has comfortably exceeded expectations.
“Clearly, this shows Valentine’s Day is in full swing at the village,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told a press conference. “Ten thousand have been used — 2,800 athletes — you can go figure, as they say.”
Adams added with a smile: “It is rule 62 of the Olympic Charter that we have to have a condoms story. Faster, higher, stronger, together.”
Milano Cortina organisers later acknowledged that stocks had been depleted due to “higher-than-anticipated demand,” but assured that additional supplies were already on the way.
“Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all Villages between today and Monday,” organisers said in a statement. “They will be continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.”
The unexpected shortage also surprised some athletes.
Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo said he had only just heard about the situation. “I just saw that this morning. I was, like, shocked as everyone else,” he said.
Mialitiana Clerc, an alpine skier representing Madagascar, noted that boxes once placed at building entrances were quickly emptied.
“There were a lot of boxes at the entrance of every building where we were staying, and every day, everything had gone from the boxes,” Clerc said. “I already know that a lot of people are using condoms, or giving them to their friends outside of the Olympics, because it’s a kind of gift for them.”
While medals remain the official measure of achievement at the Games, the empty dispensers suggest that the social side of the Olympics is also proceeding at full pace.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday awarded a top state honour to an Olympic skeleton racer who was disqualified from the Winter Games for wearing a helmet commemorating athletes killed in the war with Russia.
Zelenskiy, speaking to Vladyslav Heraskevych on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference, said he had great respect for “all the Olympians who supported you and your position.”
“Medals are important for Ukraine and for you, but it seems to me that the most important thing is who you are,” Zelenskiy said while presenting the racer with the Order of Freedom.
Heraskevych told the president the award was “huge” and that the athletes depicted on the helmet “deserve it even more. Because of their sacrifice, we can compete in the Olympics.”
Heraskevych, 27, was disqualified at the Winter Games in Italy on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that the helmet’s depiction of athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 breached rules on political neutrality.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed his appeal on Friday.
Heraskevych told reporters after the award ceremony that his disqualification was discriminatory as he had not violated the Olympic Charter, a document he said he “really valued.”
“But at the same time, I understand that this scandal has united people around the world about our problem and about the sacrifice of these great athletes, and I believe this goal is much more important than any medal,” he said.
Speaking before the CAS hearing earlier in the day, Heraskevych said his exclusion and rules imposed by the International Olympic Committee were “an instrument of propaganda for Russia. I still receive a lot of threats from the Russian side.”
-Reuters
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Ukraine’s skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Thursday over the use of a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia, the International Olympic Committee said.
He was informed of his disqualification after a meeting with IOC President Kirsty Coventry early in the morning at the sliding venue.
His team said they would appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Coventry told reporters she had wanted to meet the athlete face to face in a last-ditch effort to break the impasse.
“I was not meant to be here but I thought it was really important to come here and talk to him face to face,” Coventry told reporters.
“No one, especially me, is disagreeing with the messaging, it’s a powerful message, it’s a message of remembrance, of memory.
“The challenge was to find a solution for the field of play. Sadly we’ve not been able to find that solution” she added, choking up.
“I really wanted to see him race, It’s been an emotional morning.”
The IOC offered him the opportunity to display his “helmet of remembrance” depicting 24 images of dead compatriots before the start and after the end of Thursday’s race at the Games, while also allowing him to wear a black armband while competing.
“I am disqualified from the race. I will not get my Olympic moment,” said Heraskevych.
The skeleton competition starts later on Thursday.
-Reuters
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