[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 200 (Thursday, December 7, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1669]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              RUSSIA BANNED FROM WINTER OLYMPICS BY I.O.C.

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 7, 2017

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, include in the Record following article:

                [From the New York Times, Dec. 5, 2017]

              Russia Banned From Winter Olympics by I.O.C.

                  (By Rebecca R. Ruiz and Tariq Panja)

       Lausanne, Switzerland.--Russia's Olympic team has been 
     barred from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South 
     Korea. The country's government officials are forbidden to 
     attend, its flag will not be displayed at the opening 
     ceremony and its anthem will not sound.
       Any athletes from Russia who receive special dispensation 
     to compete will do so as individuals wearing a neutral 
     uniform, and the official record books will forever show that 
     Russia won zero medals.
       That was the punishment issued Tuesday to the proud sports 
     juggernaut that has long used the Olympics as a show of 
     global force but was exposed for systematic doping in 
     previously unfathomable ways. The International Olympic 
     Committee, after completing its own prolonged investigations 
     that reiterated what had been known for more than a year, 
     handed Russia penalties for doping so severe they were 
     without precedent in Olympics history.
       The ruling was the final confirmation that the nation was 
     guilty of executing an extensive state-backed doping program. 
     The scheme was rivaled perhaps only by the notorious program 
     conducted by East Germany throughout the 1960s, `70s and 
     `80s.
       Now the sports world will wait to see how Russia responds. 
     Some Russian officials had threatened to boycott if the 
     I.O.C. delivered such a severe punishment.
       President Vladimir V. Putin seemed to predict a boycott of 
     the Pyeongchang Games with a defiant dismissal of the doping 
     scandal and a foreign policy in recent years that has 
     centered on the premise that he has rescued Russia from the 
     humiliation inflicted on it by the West after the collapse of 
     the Soviet Union. His spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said no 
     boycott was under discussion before the announcement, 
     however, and the news broke late in the evening in Moscow 
     when an immediate official reaction was unlikely.
       In barring Russia's team, Olympic officials left the door 
     open for some Russian athletes. Those with histories of 
     rigorous drug testing may petition for permission to compete 
     in neutral uniforms. A panel appointed by the International 
     Olympic Committee will rule on each athlete's eligibility.
       Although it is unknown exactly how many will clear that 
     bar, it is certain that the contingent from Russia will be 
     depleted significantly. Entire sports--such as biathlon and 
     cross-country skiing, in which Russia has excelled and in 
     which its drug violations have been many--could be wiped out 
     completely.
       Olympic officials made two seemingly significant 
     concessions to Russia:
       Any of its athletes competing under a neutral flag will be 
     referred to as Olympic Athletes from Russia. That is a 
     departure from how the I.O.C. has handled neutral athletes in 
     the past. For example, athletes from Kuwait, which was barred 
     from the 2016 Summer Games, were identified as Independent 
     Olympic Athletes last year in Rio de Janeiro.
       Olympics officials said they might lift the ban on Russia 
     in time for the closing ceremony, suggesting the nation's 
     flag could make a symbolic appearance in the final hours of 
     the Pyeongchang Games.
       Thomas Bach, president of I.O.C., has said he was perturbed 
     not only by Russia's widespread cheating but by how it had 
     been accomplished: by corrupting the Olympic laboratory that 
     handled drug testing at the Games, and on orders from 
     Russia's own Olympic officials.
       ``This decision should draw a line under this damaging 
     episode,'' Mr. Bach said at a news conference, noting that 
     Alexander Zhukov, the president of Russia's Olympic Committee 
     whom the I.O.C. suspended from its membership Tuesday, had 
     issued an apology--something global regulators have long 
     requested from the nation.
       In an elaborate overnight operation at the 2014 Sochi 
     Games, a team assembled by Russia's sports ministry tampered 
     with more than 100 urine samples to conceal evidence of top 
     athletes' steroid use throughout the course of competition. 
     More than two dozen Russian athletes have been disqualified 
     from the Sochi standings as a result, and Olympic officials 
     are still sorting through the tainted results and rescinding 
     medals.
       At the coming Games, Mr. Bach said Tuesday, a special medal 
     ceremony will reassign medals to retroactive winners from 
     Sochi. But, in light of legal appeals from many of the 
     Russian athletes who have been disqualified by the I.O.C., it 
     is uncertain if all results from Sochi will be finalized in 
     time.
       The Russian Olympic Committee was also fined $15 million on 
     Tuesday, money that global officials said will be put toward 
     drug-testing international athletes.
       [Read The Times's report that first laid out the details of 
     Russia's doping scheme, and the exclusive story of a whistle-
     blower's personal diaries that were shared with 
     investigators.]
       The punishment announced Tuesday resembles what antidoping 
     regulators had lobbied for leading up to the 2016 Summer 
     Games, where Russia was allowed to participate but in 
     restricted numbers. It is likely to face a legal appeal from 
     Russia's Olympic Committee.
       The decision was announced after top International Olympic 
     Committee officials had met privately with Mr. Zhukov; Vitaly 
     Smirnov, Russia's former sports minister who was last year 
     appointed Mr. Putin to lead a national antidoping commission 
     to redeem Russia's standing in global sports; and Evgenia 
     Medvedeva, a two-time world skating champion.
       ``Everyone is talking about how to punish Russia, but no 
     one is talking about how to help Russia,'' Mr. Smirnov said, 
     sipping a hot beverage in the lobby of the Lausanne Palace 
     Hotel before delivering his final appeal to officials. ``Of 
     course we want our athletes there, and we want the Russian 
     flag and anthem,'' he said.
       That appeal was rejected in light of the conclusions of 
     Samuel Schmid, a former president of Switzerland whom the 
     Olympic committee appointed last year to review the findings 
     of a scathing investigation commissioned by the World Anti-
     Doping Agency.
       ``The analysis is clear and water-tight,'' Mr. Schmid said 
     Tuesday. In a 30-page report, he affirmed the credibility of 
     whistle-blowers and investigators who had followed their 
     leads and evidence.
       Tuesday's penalty was in line with what had been advocated 
     by two key whistle-blowers whose accounts upended Russia's 
     standing in global sports over the last several years and 
     were cited in Mr. Schmid's report: Grigory Rodchenkov, the 
     chemist who spent 10 years as Russia's antidoping lab chief 
     and was key to carrying out the cheating schemes in Sochi; 
     and Vitaly Stepanov, a former employee of Russia's antidoping 
     agency who married a runner for Russia's national team and 
     was the first to speak publicly about the nation's 
     institutionalized cheating.
       ``The world knows that hundreds of Olympic dreams have been 
     stolen by the doping system in the country where I was 
     born,'' Mr. Stepanov wrote in an affidavit submitted to the 
     International Olympic Committee this fall. He had suggested 
     banning Russia's Olympic Committee for two years, or until 
     the nation's antidoping operations are recertified by 
     regulators. Russia and its individual athletes are all but 
     certain to miss the 2018 Paralympics given regulators' 
     refusal to recertify the nation last month.
       ``The evidence is clear, that the doping system in Russia 
     has not yet been truly reformed,'' Mr. Stepanov wrote.
       Dr. Rodchenkov is living in an undisclosed location in the 
     United States under protection of federal authorities. In 
     August, ``Icarus,'' a film detailing Dr. Rodchenkov's move to 
     the United States and tell-all account, was released. In 
     addition to sworn testimony and forensic evidence, Mr. Schmid 
     cited the film as further evidence in his report.
       ``Russia's consistent denials lack any credibility, and its 
     failure to produce all evidence in its possession only 
     further confirms its high-level complicity,'' Jim Walden, a 
     lawyer for Dr. Rodchenkov, said Tuesday. The Russian sports 
     ministry did not immediately respond to a request for 
     comment.
       Tuesday's decision could have consequences for another 
     major sports event scheduled to be held in Russia, next 
     year's $11 billion soccer World Cup. The nation's deputy 
     prime minister, Vitaly Mutko, was Russia's top sports 
     official during the 2014 Sochi Games and was directly 
     implicated by Dr. Rodchenkov. As part of Tuesday's ruling, 
     Mr. Mutko was barred for life from the Olympics.
       Mr. Mutko is also the chairman of the local organizing 
     committee for the World Cup, but FIFA said in a statement 
     Tuesday that the I.O.C.'s punishments for Olympic doping 
     would have ``no impact'' on its preparations for the 
     tournament, which begins in June.

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