The decision may have been made last December but permitting industrial scale dopers Russia back into this year’s Olympic Games still curdles the paint around the halls of Sport Ireland.
Chief executive John Treacy met with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) last week and he might have told them that in the Irish Anti-Doping Review published on Wednesday, Ireland had three positive tests last year and each athlete was banned for four years.
That means four years. Russia’s ban for state-sponsored cheating was also four years, then halved before its athletes were told they could compete at this year’s Olympics and the 2022 World Cup wearing red shirts with the word “Russia” on them with “neutral athlete” appearing beside.
Russia was allowed go free. While they are still the red wine stain on the Olympic linen, they were considered by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to be too big to fail. The greatest doping scandal in sporting history is a note in the appendices.
Irish athletes, less three from GAA, triathlon and weightlifting, may well ask what the point is of competing clean at Tokyo in July where a level playing field has just become much more difficult to see.
Astonishment, anger and disbelief won’t help gymnast Rhys McClenaghan, who has to compete against rebranded dopers. In addition, around 300 other athletes from around the world won’t compete in Tokyo as Russian athletes fill their quotas.
“We met with Wada last week, a very direct meeting,” said Treacy. “We had the president and secretary general on the call. We outlined our issues. But it is about insuring we play our role internationally and that we put up the case of a level playing field. The Russian case is lost now. We have to adjust to it and move on.
“The overall point I wanted to make was the IOC shouldn’t be anywhere near decisions around anti-doping and when they are I think there is conflict. Obviously the IOC want Russia in the Olympic Games. We want a strong Wada and we want them to lead us robustly and safe guard the system.
“But it’s very hard for Wada because half the funding comes from the IOC and half from government, so they have to keep an eye on two constituents.
“Russia was by far the greatest anti-doping case of all times, of all times. It’s a slap on the wrist and they move on. It’s deny, deny, deny. No admission. It’s farcical.”
It is also in stark contrast to Ireland, where a culture of taking banned substances has not been a systemic problem. Cycling was the sport tested most in 2020 with 191 samples taken. The GAA and rugby were next with 138 and 114 tests respectively with Athletics Ireland and rowing the only other two Irish sports that carried out more than 100 tests on its athletes.
The three positive samples were for two different drugs. In GAA the athlete used hormone and metabolic modulators, with those in triathlon and weightlifting testing positive for anabolic agents.
That number is down by one from 2019, where four athletes across four different sports had positive tests for banned substances. In all testing cost €1,904,381.61, which included salaries, education and other costs.
There were also 18 Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE) approved by Sport Ireland. TUEs are used when athletes taking a particular medication that is on the banned list are permitted to do so with medical consent.
That number is significantly lower than last year because competition across all sports barely existed during the series of Covid lockdowns.
“It’s very sad,” says Treacy wearing his competitor’s hat. “When you see those decisions being made . . . the Russian system was set up to enable athletes to violate rules assisting them to railroad and beat the anti-doping system. The level of infringement was off the Richter Scale and there were no consequences. If there are no consequences, you move on and that is sad for the athletes.
“In Ireland we have to continue to put the fight up and show leadership for our athletes and we say what’s on our minds and put up the best case we possibly can.”
In-competition samples accounted for only 17 per cent of national testing as competitions were cancelled due to the pandemic. Out of competition samples accounted for 83 per cent of the testing. Unsuccessful attempts on the registered testing pool decreased by 11 per cent from 2019, while whereabouts failures increased from four in 2019 to seven in 2020.
