GENEVA: In a possible shift of support for Russian athletes competing at the Pyeongchang Olympics, IOC president Thomas Bach told critics on Friday not to put pressure on his executive board before a key decision next month.

Bach will chair an IOC board meeting on Dec 5 which could ban Russia’s team from the Winter Games because of state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Sochi Games.

Long seen as Russia’s ally, Bach this month seemed to confirm that position when he criticised “unacceptable” demands for a total ban while two Olympic panels investigate the Sochi doping programme. Ten Russians have already been disqualified.

However, in a speech on Friday, Bach cautioned against those “from whichever side” seeking to influence the IOC.

“Some may try to build pressure. They will be wrong,” the IOC leader told European Olympic officials meeting in Zagreb, Croatia.

The IOC is facing the same politicised decision over Russia as it did before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

In July 2016, Bach’s board did not impose a blanket ban on Russia after investigator Richard McLaren published his first report into the Sochi programme less than three weeks before the Rio opening ceremony. Instead, the IOC let individual sports governing bodies lead the decision-making.

Bach was seen then as prioritising Russian athletes’ rights to compete in what proved a chaotic period of urgent legal cases based on McLaren’s interim report. The full investigation report published last December went even deeper into the Russian doping programme, and beyond winter sports.

The “important difference” this time, Bach said on Friday, was that accused Russian athletes have had due legal process and a fair hearing from the IOC.

“Now it is about what happened at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014. Now it is about us,” Bach told leaders of European national Olympic bodies.

“Now it is about the integrity of the Olympic Games. Now it is about what happened at Olympic Games in a laboratory of the Olympic Games. What happened with Olympic athletes. What happened with Olympic medallists.

“This is what we have to bear in mind when I say that we will take a fair decision.”

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2017

Opinion

Editorial

Judiciary’s SOS
Updated 28 Mar, 2024

Judiciary’s SOS

The ball is now in CJP Isa’s court, and he will feel pressure to take action.
Data protection
28 Mar, 2024

Data protection

WHAT do we want? Data protection laws. When do we want them? Immediately. Without delay, if we are to prevent ...
Selling humans
28 Mar, 2024

Selling humans

HUMAN traders feed off economic distress; they peddle promises of a better life to the impoverished who, mired in...
New terror wave
Updated 27 Mar, 2024

New terror wave

The time has come for decisive government action against militancy.
Development costs
27 Mar, 2024

Development costs

A HEFTY escalation of 30pc in the cost of ongoing federal development schemes is one of the many decisions where the...
Aitchison controversy
Updated 27 Mar, 2024

Aitchison controversy

It is hoped that higher authorities realise that politics and nepotism have no place in schools.