Elusive games, elusive World Cup

The Russian team almost certainly will not be allowed to speak at the Olympics in Brazil, experts say. In their opinion, in connection with a large -scale doping scandal, the chances of the fact that at least “pure” athletes, in whose analyzes there were no traces of stimulants, are practically deprived of a chance to fate in the 2016 Olympics.

Recall that the scandal erupted after the American newspaper New York Times published material with the statements of the former head of the Moscow anti -doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov. He argued that at least 15 Russian athletes - prize -winners of the Olympiad in Sochi won thanks to doping and were generally only part of a large -scale doping program.

World Anti -Doping Agency (WADA) The investigation began. Its results were published on July 18 at a press conference in Toronto. The WADA report said that witnesses confirmed information about the mass use of doping, and use under state control; that doping samples taken from Russian athletes were massively replaced; And they reported that samples were replaced by decision of the Deputy Minister of Sports of Russia Yuri Nagorny.

Now the admission of the Russian team to the games will be a genuine miracle; Moreover, Russia is just right to worry about the fate of the World Cup in 2018, said sports journalist Nikita Belogolovtsev.

Spread journalist Nikita Belogolovtsev. Photo: YouTube.com

“I think that our prospects for participation [in the Olympics in Brazil] are rather bleak. The International Olympic Committee, apparently, will not rush in this matter - they will wait for the decision of the highest sports arbitration, which usually sits in Lausanne. Now his meeting was transferred to Geneva, so we, apparently, will not be decisions today. It will be at best tomorrow, or maybe a little later.

But what [about the draft WADA to prevent the Russian team for the Olympics in Rio] can be said? There is nothing sensational in it. That is, of course, any outgoing event is a sensation, but from the point of view of surprise, this is not sensational. Rather, it would be amazing if, after everything that happened, the WADA commission went to the rostrum and said: “You know, we didn’t find anything from the guys, everything is fine, so - on a good way!”

It is clear that no one was waiting for this. It is clear that this is the investigation itself, in general, quite peculiar. If you consider it strictly from a legal point of view, it has a huge number of white spots. It is clear that if we were talking about the court, about a full -fledged trial, then the judges would have giant issues for this investigation. This is his authors, in general, do not hide it. They say: well, yes, we were in a hurry to have time for the deadline that we had time, we managed, but we would like to continue. ”

“From my point of view, there are several reinforced concrete moments that cause serious questions. This, of course, is, first of all, a story about the discrepant DNA analyzes that the athletes allegedly handed over, and the athletes themselves. I am not a specialist to evaluate the story about scratches on the cover of test tubes with samples (the media wrote about scratches on the inside of the container with samples, which, according to their reports, testified that the container was opened - approx. Ed.) - whether it is possible to find them whether it is possible to draw conclusions on this basis. Probably, forensic scientists should talk about this. But, in general, it is clear to any person in common reason that if you systematically (and 3 out of 11 are systematically) do not coincide the DNA of people who allegedly took tests from the DNA of analyzes, then this is, of course, a sentence. This is almost one hundred percent confirms all the testimonies [of the former head of the Moscow Anti -Doping Laboratory] Doctor [Grigory] Rodchenkov and others.

Special bottles of Berlinger for doping samples

In this situation, infinitely sorry for the “pure” athletes who, apparently, will still not go to the Olympics if there is no miracle. But at the same time, the logic of the prosecution can also be understood. And the logic of the prosecution here is obviously as follows: if you replace samples, then how can we believe that one of your athletes is clean? If you have replaced, as the report says, 600 samples, then why should we be sure that there was no test of this, this or this athlete among them?

This, unfortunately, is such a “naunching wall”. Because yes, indeed, if samples are massively replaced, then any Russian athlete can be suspected of using doping. And, probably, if we consider the fact with a massive substitution proven, as WADA believes, he relieves the presumption of innocence and forms a kind of “presumption of guilt” for all Russian athletes who surrendered samples in Russia.

Yesterday, many called to wait for Vladimir Putin's performance as the main lobbyist of Russian sports. Frankly, the performance was not disappointed, but I expected from him some stronger statements. By and large, if you remove the “compulsory program”, all this is “we are against doping”, “it is bad when the games are boycott” - in general, if all this is taken out of the brackets, Putin will only remain in the speech of Putin: “We will remove the [Deputy Minister of Sports of Yuri] of the Nagorny and other officials lower for the time of the ongoing investigation, in which we want to take part and ask us to provide data.”

From my point of view, this is a very weak statement, which says at least that Russia still does not have its own investigation. That is, it is clear that when there was an investigation of WADA, there was no parallel internal investigation in Russia. This was also said to [Richard] McLaren, head of the WADA commission: they say, I was somehow not invited to Russia to show that there was nothing like that and could not be.

Probably, we can assume that now there will be some attempts to bargains. But it is very difficult to understand who he can lead with and for what reason. Because [the president of the International Olympic Committee] Thomas Bach, on whom we seemed to relieve as on our great friend and man, fascinated by Sochi, according to various sources, is simply furious. He was probably angry that he, including personally, was deceived: for sure he was given some guarantees and assurances were made that all suspicions were nonsense sucked out of his finger. And then it turns out that these were not stupid things at all and not all - far -fetched.

Therefore, frankly, I have no illusions about the participation of our team in games in Rio. I repeat once again: it seems to me that if this is not ending with its detachment, it will be a great miracle. And it seems to me that now our diplomatic efforts should be - and, probably, they will be concentrated on attempts to defend the 2018 World Cup. Because, obviously, he is in the immediate danger, and in the report of [WADA commission], including, there are words about systematic abuse with doping during previous large tournaments - the Universiade, the World Athletics Championship, the Olympic Games in Sochi. And our application for 2018 was largely built on the fact that here, look at how we are all wonderful, and the championship will also be wonderful.

Now there is absolutely no such confidence about the championship. Obviously, they don’t really want to transfer the championship from Russia to FIFA - they don’t have time for this, it will require money. Just from here, all these numerous statements of the organizing committee yesterday, that we will do everything now, check and so on. But there is a situation in which they can simply confront the fact - unfortunately for Russia and Russian fans, ”said Nikita Belogolovtsev.