ZHUKOVSKY, Russia — Long jumper Ekaterina Koneva says she’ll cry. World hurdles champion Sergei Shubenkov says he’ll drown his sorrows.
A day before a sports court rules on Russia’s appeal against the ban on its track and field team from the Olympics, star Russian athletes at a meet near Moscow pondered how they will react if they lose their case and can’t go to Rio de Janeiro.
“What if we are not admitted, what do we do?” asked Koneva, a world championship silver medalist who would be a contender for gold if allowed to go to Rio. “I hope they will tell us something good.”
Shubenkov said: “I will get drunk.”
The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland will rule Thursday on an appeal filed by Russia’s Olympic track and field team of 68 athletes against a ban imposed by the sport’s world governing body, the IAAF, following allegations of state-sponsored doping and cover-ups.
As it stands, the IAAF has approved just two Russians to compete, as “neutral athletes,” after they showed they had been training and living abroad under a robust drug testing regime. One is doping whistleblower Yulia Stepanova; the other is Florida-based long jumper Darya Klishina, who has received threats online from Russian fans who think she would be betraying her country by competing if the rest of the team is banned.
Thursday’s ruling is likely to weigh heavily on whether the International Olympic Committee excludes the entire Russian team – across all sports – following new allegations of a vast state-sponsored doping program.
Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, who was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, issued a report Monday that accused Russia’s sports ministry of orchestrating a doping program that affected 28 summer and winter Olympic sports.
The Russian appeal of the track ban was heard by a CAS panel on Tuesday in Geneva, with two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva on hand to represent the athletes. IAAF President Sebastian Coe also attended the hearing.
The decision will be closely scrutinized by the IOC, which said Tuesday it would “explore the legal options” for a possible total ban on Russia but would wait until after the CAS ruling.
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