The decision to reinstate the Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) programme is out and I must say that I am disappointed. But let us start at the beginning.
In November 2015, the Russian Athletics federation was suspended by World Athletics (in fact, it was still the IAAF at that time) due to suspicions of state-sponsored doping. As a consequence Russian athletes could not participate in the Rio, 2016, Olympics (with the exception of long jumper D. Klishina who lives permanently in the US). The ban of Russia was extended several times since then. Things got worse in 2018, when D. Lysenko (2017 world silver medalist and 2018 indoor world champion) was suspended due to a whereabouts violation. Lysenko provided documents stating that he had missed his second test due to being hospitalised, but it turned out that the documents were forged and he had obtained them through the help of officials of the Russian Athletics federation. As a result the president of the federation had to step down and it was only though the intervention of the russian sports minister that the federation was not permanently expelled.
With the election, in November 2020, of a new president fo the federation, P. Ivanov, there was a definite climate change. The head of the task-force that oversees the reinstatement of Russia, R. Andersen, was quite optimistic as to the return of russian athletes to international competitions. However, due the fact that Ivanov is a government official, he had to step down in favour of the vice-president who is none other but the 2000, Sydney, olympic champion I. Privalova.
In 2019 WADA banned Russia from all sports for four years. Russia appealed the decision and finally the Court of Arbitration for Sport had decided to cut the sanction to two years. This means that Russia will not be allowed to compete in this year's Tokyo Olympics. Neither in next year's World's. As expected the USADA's reaction was to call the CAS ruling a devastating decision. Always an anti-russian zealot T. Tygart (the very same who cooked up a ridiculous excuse, a "filing failure", allowing C. Coleman to avoid a sanction for a whereabouts violation) accused WADA and the IOPC of having "manipulated and mishandled this sordid Russian state-doping affair" and having put "politics over principle". One would not have expected anything less from an individual like Tygart.
A few days ago World Athletic announced the reinstatement of the ANA program allowing 10 athletes (among those who have been granted ANA status) to participate in the athletics competition during the Tokyo Olympics. And when we are talking about 10 athletes this means in total and not per competition. This applies not only to the Olympics but also to all World Athletics Series events, and the European under-23 championships. I find this preposterous.
In the 2017 World Championships there were 19 ANA athletes present (12 men and 7 women). In the 2018 Europeans there were 29 (17 men and 12 women). The number stayed the same, 29, in the 2019 World's but with 13 men and 16 women. (They won 6 medals in each of these competitions: 1+5+0, 1+3+2 and 2+3+1). And now what WA is proposing is to cut this number to just 10. And it is nowhere made clear whether the U23 athletes will be selected among the same pool of 10. This is a punishment that even Tygart could find sufficient. (He wouldn't!. For him the only good russian is a non-participating russian).
And I am sparing you the details concerning all the restrictions. The emblem used in the competitions cannot be the russian flag: only the emblem of the russian olympic committee (for the OG) or that of the RusAF (for the championships) may be used. The russian anthem cannot be played and is replaced by a musical score proposed by the Russian Olympic Committee. The name "Russia" cannot be used on the athlete's uniform unless the words "neutral athlete" also appear in a position and size that is no less prominent than the former. Even the usual acronym of Russia, RUS, is to be replaced by ROC (Russian Olympic Committee).
But what I find revolting is the amendment of the ANA reinstatement decision by the WA council. What was initially proposed was that
Council may revoke the provisions relating to Authorised Neutral Athletes at any time if the Taskforce advises that satisfactory progress is not being made against the milestones and KPIs set out in the Reinstatement Plan.
And then the council added that the ANA authorisation may be revoked also
If any of the ten athletes designated to compete as ANAs in the Olympic Games etc. commits an anti-doping rule violation.
So, WA introduces a kind of collective responsibility which, at least to myself, has a reek, bringing back memories of dictatorship (and of tales of nazi-occupied Greece).
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