World Athletics set to address Russian doping issue before Ukraine

World Athletics has said that it will address the Russian doping scandal first before touching on the subject of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The highest governing body in the sport of athletics, World Athletics had made it clear that it will only visit the issue of Russian athletes participating in international events and competitions even as the war with Ukraine continues only after examining whether Russia has been able to sufficiently clean up its act on doping and whether it can be reinstated. President Sebastian Coe said the same on Friday.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has already faced a major backlash after allowing athletes from Russia as well as its ally Belarus to continue competing at next year’s Olympics in Paris, albeit under neutral flags and anthems, despite the ongoing war following the invasion of Ukraine.

On the other hand, the Russian Athletics Federation (RAF) has remained banned from world athletics since 2015 on account of its various doping scandals. However, despite this ban still in effect, some athletes from Russia were allowed to compete in the last two Olympics as neutral athletes.

A governing council for World Athletics will meet next month to judge whether the RAF has made significant progress in its attempts to clean up its act and secure a ‘road map’ to warrant reinstatement. World Athletics president Coe continues to maintain that doping will continue to take precedence in their agenda when dealing with Russia.

“The Council will discuss the roadmap for reinstatement but specifically around the egregious attack on the integrity of our sport through doping,” Coe told reporters at the world cross-country championships in Bathurst, New South Wales.

“Only on the basis of that conversation, or that discussion, would we move on to the second discussion.”

With that being said, however, Coe also added that the blanket ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes imposed last year, including a suspension of the option to compete as a neutral, would be lifted.

“The council last February made (a) judgment (on) the situation in Ukraine and the inability of Ukrainian athletes to be competing openly and fairly and with the kind of integrity that we demand in our competitions,” he added.

“It was decided by the council it was inconceivable that Russia athletes (could compete) ... So the council will make a decision about whether that position that we decided upon in February still pertains

“But, as far as I’m concerned, the principles still sit there.”

The IOC, meanwhile, are desperate to avoid letting the Olympics getting caught up between political infighting as the war between Russia and Ukraine rages on. They have proposed that, as a result, Russian and Belarusian athletes could participate in Asian qualifying events for the Paris Games.

International Federations of the respective sports such as World Athletics in athletics, however, have the final decision on which athletes are allowed to compete in qualifying events and at the Olympic Games.