Representatives of the anti-doping agencies of 10 countries and 20 groups of athletes demand the removal of the entire Russian team from participation in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the New York Times wrote on Saturday.
"Representatives of the anti-doping agencies of at least 10 countries and 20 groups of athletes are preparing an extraordinary step with the demand to suspend the entire Russian delegation from the Olympic Games in connection with the charges of a doping program," the newspaper reports, referring to e-mails received by the publication.
The article says that it is primarily about the anti-doping agencies of the United States, the UK, Germany, Spain, Japan, Switzerland and Canada. According to the newspaper, "more than twenty groups of athletes represent Olympic athletes from around the world."
"Anti-doping officials and athletes had intended to put pressure on the International Olympic Committee on Monday – less than three weeks before the opening ceremony of the Games in Rio," the article reads.
It is also emphasized that the supporters of the removal of the Russian team "expect an investigation of the New York Times charges of the doping program for the Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi, published in May.’’ The charges were brought by the former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, Gregory Rodchenkov.
The director of the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Travis Tygart, in turn, said that the agency is not asking for the worst solution and hopes that drugs are not represented on the state level, but "if we do not prepare for all possible results, we will not fulfill our obligations before the clean athletes,’’ he said.
However, other anti-doping officials said they did not see the WADA committee report.
The founder of the first anti-doping laboratory in the United States, Don Catlin, said he would prefer to refrain from assessments before reading the report. The US Anti-Doping Agency and Canada declined to comment on the situation, according to RIA Novosti.
Meanwhile the chairman of the Committee for Physical Culture, Sports and Youth Policy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Svishchev, described everything that happened as a provocation and stressed that the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) cannot boycott the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
