Exclude Russian sports organisations from international competitions: NADOs

Leaders from 19 national anti-doping organisations (NADOs) demand consequences after the release of the second McLaren report and call for the exclusion of Russian sports organisations from international competitions as well as a removal of international competitions hosted by Russia.

Concluding their third meeting in six months, taking place in Dublin, Ireland, leaders from national anti-doping agencies reiterated their call for structural reform and increased independence of the anti-doping work.

“With the best interests of clean athletes at heart, it is our hope that these proposals will help sport move past these dark times and pave a path towards a brighter future – one where the promise of clean competition is fulfilled.” the NADO leaders said in a joint statement.

“But in order to do so, steps must be taken, and it is imperative that those responsible for Russia’s state-supported system are held accountable, that calls for a truly independent anti-doping model are finally heeded and those athletes affected by this abhorrent behavior are given back at least some of what was taken from them.”

The NADOs leave a door open for Russian athletes to compete as ‘neutrals’, following ‘standardized criteria’, the statement says.

The statement also includes a call to “remove all international competitions currently set to take place in Russia, as well as [imposing] a moratorium on awarding any new competitions to the country”.

On top of the list of the NADOs' reform proposals is the strengthening of the separation of sport from the anti-doping effort.

“These reforms would help prevent the inherent conflict of interest that exists when a sports organisation is tasked with both promoting and policing itself,” the NADO statement says.

IOC Rio decision was "a major setback"
In an interview by RTÉ, following up on the meeting, USADA CEO Travis Tygart underlined the need for restoring trust in sport, especially after the IOC allowed Russian athletes to compete at the Rio Olympics, a decision that Tygart calls a "major setback". He further calls on the IOC and its president, Thomas Bach, to step up.

“I think it (the decision regarding Russian athletes, ed.) is why the legacy of the current president (Thomas Bach, ed.) and the Olympic flame burns less bright today than before,” Tygart said.

“That said, this presents a wonderful opportunity where the IOC can step up and reverse that legacy and do the right thing: Remove themselves, adequately fund a truly independent global regulator and restore the hope and fulfil the promise of Olympism to clean athletes that it is going to be fair and that it is not going to be a rigged system that the world can’t have any confidence in.”

In reply to the NADO statement, Russian sport minister, Vitaly Mutko denied that the second McLaren report has provided information justifying “a new set of punitive measures” and called the NADOs proposal “a deliberate attack on Russian sport aimed at its defamation”, writes Russian R-Sport news agency .

“Anti-doping organisations are anti-doping organisations, they should control the situation in their country, collect urine, but not interfere with politics,” Mutko said.