Doping in Volleyball

  • Did somebody write already, that 10 Russian volleyball players were cought on doping during 2012-2015? Soon we will know their names and there is big possibility that Russian men's volleyball NT will not play in Rio and maybe Russia will lose gold medal from London.


    Article is in Polish:
    http://eurosport.onet.pl/rio-2…iedozwolony-doping/13115c


    They won't lose medal from London or be banned from Rio. Dunno why are journalists mentioning that option after Graca said Russia will play in Rio :whistle:


    If there are any women among the 8 positive tested indoor players, I would expect that to be Gamova, Startseva and Kosheleva (suspect injuries/illness in the past...).


    Gamova & Startseva didn't play on CL FF coz club was afraid they'll be tested...

  • They won't lose medal from London or be banned from Rio. Dunno why are journalists mentioning that option after Graca said Russia will play in Rio :whistle:



    Gamova & Startseva didn't play on CL FF coz club was afraid they'll be tested...

    The 10 are from the McLaren report. I posted the chart in the previous page. Graca made that statement before the report was published and Graca cannot deny a ban. The blanket ban decision is done by IOC and applies to all sports if agreed upon. All FIVB can do at this stage is tell IOC whether they agree or disagree with the ban. That is why the names are important. If they are some random players not on the NT then there is no reason to ban them. And if the 10 players are part of the NT that won in London, the gold medal will be stripped from them. And rightly so.


    BTW the US women's relay team in 2012 had one player who was tested positive and only she was stripped of the gold while the the rest of the team got to keep their title because she only ran 1 race in the preliminary. While the entire US team was stripped of the silver in the men's relay due to Tyson Gay. So the importance of a player's role in the team is also important it seems.

  • Now FIVB will have the last say
    https://www.olympic.org/news/d…he-olympic-games-rio-2016


    1. The IOC will not accept any entry of any Russian athlete in the Olympic Games Rio 2016 unless such athlete can meet the conditions set out below.
    2. Entry will be accepted by the IOC only if an athlete is able to provide evidence to the full satisfaction of his or her International Federation (IF) in relation to the following criteria:
    • The IFs*, when establishing their pool of eligible Russian athletes, to apply the World Anti-Doping Code and other principles agreed by the Olympic Summit (21 June 2016).
    • The absence of a positive national anti-doping test cannot be considered sufficient by the IFs.
    The IFs should carry out an individual analysis of each athlete’s anti-doping record, taking into account only reliable adequate international tests, and the specificities of the athlete’s sport and its rules, in order to ensure a level playing field.
    The IFs to examine the information contained in the IP Report, and for such purpose seek from WADA the names of athletes and National Federations (NFs) implicated. Nobody implicated, be it an athlete, an official, or an NF, may be accepted for entry or accreditation for the Olympic Games.
    • The IFs will also have to apply their respective rules in relation to the sanctioning of entire NFs.
    3. The ROC is not allowed to enter any athlete for the Olympic Games Rio 2016 who has ever been sanctioned for doping, even if he or she has served the sanction.
    4. The IOC will accept an entry by the ROC only if the athlete’s IF is satisfied that the evidence provided meets conditions 2 and 3 above and if it is upheld by an expert from the CAS list of arbitrators appointed by an ICAS Member, independent from any sports organisation involved in the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
    5. The entry of any Russian athlete ultimately accepted by the IOC will be subject to a rigorous additional out-of-competition testing programme in coordination with the relevant IF and WADA. Any non-availability for this programme will lead to the immediate withdrawal of the accreditation by the IOC.

  • Now those disappeared volleyball samples are important.


    I think weightlifting is out because it had 100 samples, other sports are in question

  • Not sure if this belongs here but since 10 volleyball players were "implicated" in the McLaren report I put this here. Anyway there are some revelations that would rub salt into the Russian wounds. Originally from The Australian news site.


    http://www.sportsbusinessdaily…cs/WADA-Russian-Case.aspx



    Rio Olympics: WADA drug case against Russians ‘sexed up’


    The World Anti-Doping Agency has been accused of having “sexed up” the case against Russian *athletes following the McLaren report by handing over to sporting federations the names of compet*it*ors who were not accused of doping.


    In a stunning development, The Australian can reveal that some of the Russian competitors whose alleged drug testing was used to support aspects of WADA’s McLaren report had shown no evidence of doping. The report, by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren, *accused the Kremlin, the Moscow laboratory, coaches and athletes of a state-sponsored doping scheme.


    Some International Olympic Committee members believe WADA’s high-profile release of the McLaren report was designed to ignite the “nuclear” option of excluding the entire Russian team from the Rio Games and WADA had now been caught short not having enough detail to justify some of the claims against *athletes.


    The Australian has learned the IOC has now issued an urgent *notice to all sports to reassess whether a Russian competitor was “implicated’’ in the McLaren report, which may lead to some Russians being reinstated for Rio.


    The IOC has asked sports to clear Russians if their name was listed as “quarantine’’, or in other words their sample wasn’t changed.


    Separately, IOC vice-president and Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates wrote to Health Minister Sussan Ley telling her in blunt terms the IOC had a “lack of confidence” in WADA.


    After publishing his report, Professor McLaren subsequently gave WADA the names of competitors he said were associated with “disappearing positives’’. These names were then passed on to the international sports *federations.


    About 170 Russians who had positive drug tests destroyed, *covered up or altered to register as clear by the rogue Moscow *laboratory were believed to be members of the Russian Olympic team bound for Rio. Most were track and field athletes, and the international athletics body, the IAAF, banned the entire track and field team from the Games. But further scrutiny of the results has shown the Moscow laboratory evidence splits the Russian disappearing positives into four different categories of seriousness — one of them not serious at all.


    “We were asked to make a judgment about Russian competitors based on McLaren’s report but without having any of the detail to understand the significance of them being named,’’ a senior sports official said. “Now to be told that there were four different categories — why weren’t we told this at the very *beginning? It is a mess and it’s WADA’s fault.’’


    In his rapidly compiled report, Professor McLaren makes clear that the compressed timelines *affected his ability to verify data to establish an antidoping rule violation against specific athletes.


    “Identifying athletes who benefited from the manipulations has not been the primary focus of the (report’s) work. The team has developed evidence identifying dozens of Russian athletes who appear to have been involved in doping,’’ he wrote, adding: “The compressed timeline of the investigation did not permit compilation of data to establish an antidoping rule violation.’’


    After the IOC rejected WADA’s demand that Russia be banned from the Games, Professor McLaren handed over the names of Russian athletes in the 28 sports he had referred to in his report as having been part of the disappearing positive methodology. The sports federations then withdrew those Russian athletes from their Olympic entries.


    Another Olympic official said he believed WADA expected the IOC to immediately ban Russia upon receipt of the McLaren report and invoke the nuclear option described by IOC president Thomas Bach yesterday.


    “This blanket ban of the Russian Olympic Committee has been called by some the ‘nuclear option’ and the innocent athletes would have to be considered as collateral damage,” Mr Bach said. “Leaving aside that such a comparison is completely out of any proportion when it comes to the rules of sport, let us just for a moment consider the consequences of a ‘nuclear option’. The result is death and devastation.


    “The cynical ‘collateral damage approach’ is not what the Olympic movement stands for.”


    The sports official said of WADA: “They sexed it up which is crazy because now the entire report is under scrutiny and I am sure most of the report is absolutely accurate. It just puts question marks where question marks should not be’’.


    A response has been sought from WADA.


    The chaos surrounding the McLaren report intensified when the international swimming federation FINA defended its withdrawal of two Russian swimmers named in the McLaren report before the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday.


    The two, Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev, had “S’’ next to their name in athlete profile documents from the Moscow lab, but it is believed this was not a code to “save’’ them by changing a positive drug finding into a negative one — but was a minor transgression, possibly something like an out-of-competition marijuana finding. The CAS hearing, before Australian Federal Court judge Annabelle Bennett, adjourned the swimmers’ case on Monday night and FINA has now referred it *directly to the IOC three-person panel for scrutiny.


    It is expected that the two swimmers, who had trained in the US for a decade and been subject to numerous international drug tests, will be cleared to compete unless there is new evidence that comes to light.


    Russian IOC member Alexander Popov said the swimmers were in a San Paolo holding camp and would go to Rio today if their Games participation was confirmed. The Russian Olympic committee president Alexander Zhokov said the developments were pleasing.


    The decision of the world rowing federation, FISA, to ban 17 Russian rowers was confirmed yesterday."



    So now we know that there are 4 categories of drugs one of which is "not serious recreational drugs." But we do not know how many are in each category? What if the majority fall under that category and not PED? I suppose Obmochaev's name will be one of the 8.
    And yes the 2 swimmers have been cleared by CAS. This undermines the validity of the McLaren report altogether.
    In conclusion, WADA should have done a proper investigation and report and then present their case professionally instead of this childish witch-hunt tactic. Then proper exclusion of Russia for future olympics can be considered instead of this circus.

  • A German volleyball journalist (reliable) who is in Rio writes that FIVB now has the list of the 10 Russian volleyball players who were caught doping according to the McLaren report. They are currently trying to figure out what to do with them. None of them is in Rio, but there is no info if any of the last cut players (e.g. Musersky, Startseva) is among them.

  • A German volleyball journalist (reliable) who is in Rio writes that FIVB now has the list of the 10 Russian volleyball players who were caught doping according to the McLaren report. They are currently trying to figure out what to do with them. None of them is in Rio, but there is no info if any of the last cut players (e.g. Musersky, Startseva) is among them.

    If the Fed goes via an official avenue then there is a high risk of being sued. McLaren has no evidence in his possession as the missing positives claim obviously falls short in specifying the whereabouts of the original samples. I suspect therefore that FIVB will have a family chat with the two big guys in the Rus Fed, guarantee full support for the future and kindly ask to keep the magnificent ten outside the FIVB events for the nearest future via domestic mechanisms, e.g. by dropping them from the NT roster. The home Fed would most likely reluctantly agree, just like it did in the Markin case (Markin officially didn't make it in the last 12 as there were better candidates but at the same tie he was openly told that it was on FIVB request.)


    There is obviously a chance that McLaren made those names up, just like he did with the shooting team. That is, he could have taken the meldonium case file and copy-pasted the main characters from there, just to make his list look more impressive. I tend to think that neither Muserskiy, nor Startseva had any problems by summer 2016 (apart from poss meldonium), as both had non-zero chances of being tested overseas during the WL/GP.

  • Did anybody watch Icarus on Netflix? It discloses the 2016 Summer Olympics behind scenes about doping in Russia from the point of view of Grigory Rodchenkov, former director of Anti-Doping Centre in Moscow. What do you think?


    Icarus (2017)
    Runtime: 121'
    Genre: Documentary
    Director: Bryan Fogel
    Country: USA


    Have a go!