Execution with delay

The sports arbitration court in Lausanne rehabilitated 28 Russian athletes disqualified for life

On Thursday, the sports arbitration court in Lausanne satisfied the appeal of Russian athletes, for life -long disqualified commission Denis Oswald. 28 athletes are fully justified, for 11 the ban applies only to the upcoming Winter Olympiad in Pyeongchang. More than ten Sochin medals taken will remain with the owners.

Nevertheless, this is not a triumph - it is rather a manifestation of common sense. To blame - yes, undoubtedly. But the punishment in no case should be collective, including individual “punishment on suspicion”. Especially - lifelong.

Behind the positive decision of the sports arbitration court is a multi -layer and complex story. It is possible that the clarification will mainly be reduced to the motive “for the insufficiency of evidence”, as happened earlier and that it did not prevent the “doping case” from the most worse scenario. There are reasons to throw their caps up and shout that everything bad is already behind and now we need to engage in the punishment of all enemies, genuine and imaginary, as it was not and not.

Obviously, the competent work of hired Swiss lawyers influenced the verdict. It is possible that the next sensational plot of the television journalist of the German Channel ARD Hyo Zeppelt played its role in the tough formulations of the main person involved in the MOK against Russia case Grigory Rodchenkov about the total Russian doping system, a clear too much was traced. The hint that the author with Putin was almost on a short leg, only added skepticism in relation to the large -scale revelations of a fugitive specialist.

The Russian President finally interrupted the silence that did not speak out about the latest events with the removal of Russian athletes. On the wires of the Olympic delegation from the lips of Vladimir Putin, an unexpected “I apologize” sounded. He certainly obeyed the athletes because they "could not protect them from unprecedented pressure from the outside." But if desired, the replica could be interpreted wider. The president did not go about his main electorate, who advocated the boycott of the Olympics. Although the decision, I believe, was not easy for him.

The sports arbitration court sharply moved against the IOC, rehabilitating almost all the Sochi triumphants - the winner of the ski marathon Alexander Legkov, the holder of the three silver awards of Maxim Vylegzhanin, the “golden” skeletonist Alexander Tretyakov, the silver medalist of the skacing of Olga Fatkulin and their other colleagues.

This does not mean at all that now the IOC will urgently send an invitation to everyone, and the flag and the name will be returned to the cut delegation of the Olympic athletes from Russia.

The head of the organization Thomas Bach in early December, when fateful decisions were made, warned that the “case of Efimova” would not happen again. Let me remind you that the Plovchikha was previously removed to the 2016 games after she won the case in the arbitration court. But the final decision then depended on the international sports federations, to which the IOC entered the authority. And now the IOC himself performed fate, having approved the option with personal invitations - with which the Russian side agreed with.

Now the situation can develop in different ways. The mock is biting - none of those who have received a chance in Pyeongchang will be. The verdict will take into account, which is obliged to obey in the form, it can tighten the case for a week, and then it will be late, on February 9, the opening of the games. Partial admission is also possible, but much depends on the quotas-one of the previously detached Russians did not fulfill the qualification standards, someone did not have the opportunity to fulfill them, and indeed all the released quotas were already transferred to other delegations. The decision will depend on the reaction of the international sports community, as well as on specific participants in the Olympiad, who are already flying to Pyeongchang. And among them, not everyone will approve such a sharp turn - at first, Wada and MOK seemed to be convinced of the guilt of the Russians, and now they suddenly forgave it.

If the rehabilitated ones are invited, then a phantasmagoric situation will arise - previously disqualified for life, and not invited “on suspicion”, as well as for past sins, the leaders of the Russian team will remain outside the Olympiad will be able to perform. The first category includes Pavel Kulizhnikov, Denis Yuskov and others, to the second - Victor An, Anton Shipulin, Sergey Ustyugov. These lists are an order of magnitude more candidates for Pyeongchang’s gold than on the “List 28”.

So, with all the joy of athletes, I would wait for the euphoria - the prospects are too unclear, and there was too little time to fulfill completely fading hopes. On federal television channels they are already shouting about a big political victory, which seems much more important than sports.

But to that and to the other - even like to the moon.

IOC said that he would challenge the decisions for all 28 athletes.