ISSF Decision on Russia Shooters at Rio

[USA Shooting]

Press Release 48/2016
ISSF Statement on the participation of Russian athletes at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games

The ISSF Executive Committee recommends to the IOC that athletes from Russia may be permitted to participate in the shooting events of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The ISSF confirms having received from WADA details about the three samples concerning shooting sport mentioned in the McLaren Report. The ISSF furthermore is relieved to confirm that these three samples had been correctly entered, at the time they were reported, into the ADAMS database as positives, that all the result management procedures had been followed and that the matters were resolved.

It is also to be noted that none of the athletes whose samples are mentioned in the McLaren Report will participate in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The 18 Russian shooters who have been entered by the ROC to participate in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games are neither mentioned in the McLaren Report nor have they tested positive further to a doping control according to the information we possess. Further, all Russian athletes are being carefully monitored as part of ISSF’s intelligence based testing program.

Therefore, the ISSF Executive Committee unanimously voted confirming that all 18 Russian athletes fulfill the criteria set by the IOC further to its Executive Board meeting decision of Sunday July 24th.

The ISSF will submit all necessary documents to the IOC as requested for its evaluation and decision.

At the same time, the ISSF is deeply concerned about the findings of the McLaren Independent Investigation Report unveiled by WADA and strongly supports the extension of Prof. McLaren’s mandate in order for him to finish the crucial work he has started.

The ISSF will keep on fighting to protect clean athletes and will keep actively supporting WADA and working with the IOC and all international entities concerned. The ISSF looks forward to receiving any eventual additional findings that may become available as part of the extended McLaren Investigation. We shall again promptly act on these findings in compliance with the ISSF Anti-Doping Rules.

In order to preserve the integrity of sport, to ensure a level playing field and to support all clean athletes, the ISSF will not hesitate to punish cheaters.

###
Media Contact:
Marco DALLA DEA
ISSF Communication Manager
marco@issf-sports.org

[john bickar]

So the Russian shooters are all using undetectable drugs?

Got it.

[hundert]

no, it says all 18 athletes are clean and will participate in the Olympics.

[methosb]

Happy they didn't get a blanket ban. It would be unfortunate if we could not see Kamenskiy in the 3 position.

[john bickar]

all 18 athletes are clean

Uh huh.

[j-team]

no, it says all 18 athletes are clean and will participate in the Olympics.

Or, rather, none of the 18 athletes have failed a drug test (yet...).

[David Levene]

no, it says all 18 athletes are clean and will participate in the Olympics.

Or, rather, none of the 18 athletes have failed a drug test (yet...).

Isn't that true of the athletes from every nation? How many major Olympic nations can say that they have never had an athlete who failed a drug test.

I prefer to to assume "clean unless proven dirty".

As I understand it, and I could be wrong, most of the problems regarding the Russian track & field athletes were with out-of-competition testing.

I am not aware, but I am no expert on the subject, of any group of drugs that would benefit shooters out-of-competition. There certainly would not appear to be any need for the normal strength/endurance/recovery type drugs.

That leaves the in-competition drugs and, with shooting's system of Quota Places (admittedly for the nation rather than for the athlete) and World Cups it's a fair bet that most shooting athletes at the Olympics will already have been tested at non-Russian laboratories several times.

Get caught for taking performance enhancing drugs and get banned for life.

[hundert]

shooting and track&field is a different game.

In track & field everyone dopes. Everyone. And everyone in the industry knows it.
Most of them take EPO which becomes undetectable a few hours after you take it.
And some use a method called blood transfusion. Most use both. What these two methods do
is they increase the number of red cells in blood which gives you a higher oxygen intake.

Every cyclist in Tour de France takes it. Every runner who participates in 400m+ runs takes it.

To this day, there is no method of detecting it. Armstrong used EPO and blood transfusion.

Again, everyone does it. EVERYONE. It's undetectable and gives you a huge advantage.
Or stated more correctly, you will be at disadvantage if you don't take it, because everyone else
takes it.

The people who do get caught are those who get a visit right after they took it or they don't
cycle it correctly and get caught by inconsistencies in the so called biological passport.

The decision is to ban Russians is purely political, as again as I said, everyone dopes and
everyone knows that everyone dopes and nobody can do anything about it, because
the methods are not there to detect it.

This so called blood doping will not help you in shooting and in may other disciplines where you don't need stamina.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24190107

Get caught for taking performance enhancing drugs and get banned for life.

if it was this easy. Look at HER, whole life on doping winning God knows how many medals, gets caught, 2 years vacation and now she's back... even tried through court to decrease the 2 year ban... just wow...
I'm all for banning for life and stripping of all her medals, doesn't matter if she didn't dope on her first win. (she did of course, no chance of winning if you don't).

I'm not even gonna go into doping by Americans in 400meters Olympic sprint, they get caught almost every Olympics.

For shooting there are muscle relaxers, beta blockers available, but they're easier to detect because you need to take them during competition. Short distance sprinters, throwers, use HGH and steroids for strength and are also easier caught.

Also, many American athletes have been unfairly disqualified for cannabis use. I'm always asking why??? Why does one get 2 years for cannabis and 2 years for injecting steroids??? just thing about the advantages of the one and of the other that can turn a lady into a muscular bodybuilder, so stupid...

[JamesH]

I think blanket bans are unfair to individual athletes who don't cheat, it takes a long time to work up to an Olympics, to be banned because the person before you cheated would not be fair, the IOC has got this one right.

A punishment for Russia itself - a ban on hosting any Olympic event for a decade for example - would fit the bill and not disadvantage any athlete.
It would give Putin's ego a bruising which is what is deserved.

[David Levene]

I think blanket bans are unfair to individual athletes who don't cheat, it takes a long time to work up to an Olympics, to be banned because the person before you cheated would not be fair, the IOC has got this one right.

I couldn't agree more. Thank goodness the ISSF acted promptly on this, keeping any disturbance to the athletes to a minimum.

[sparky]

I think blanket bans are unfair to individual athletes who don't cheat, it takes a long time to work up to an Olympics, to be banned because the person before you cheated would not be fair, the IOC has got this one right.

A punishment for Russia itself - a ban on hosting any Olympic event for a decade for example - would fit the bill and not disadvantage any athlete.
It would give Putin's ego a bruising which is what is deserved.

I agree. That, in conjunction with bans for individual athletes, is the way to go.