• Russia likely to appeal decision that has been applauded by Wada • IPC’s Sir Philip Craven ‘disgusted’ by government’s ‘catastrophic’ failure

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Officials have issued a blanket ban on Russian athletes competing at next month’s Paralympics in Rio, strongly criticising Vladimir Putin’s government for prioritising “medals over morals”.

The ruling immediately prompted comparisons with the International Olympic Committee’s failure to ban Russian competitors despite wide ranging evidence of a state-run doping system, which after days of legal chaos and appeals led to a final team of 278 from the country competing in Rio.

The controversy has overshadowed the buildup to the Rio Olympics, with the IOC criticised for further eroding trust in sport and potentially leaving viewers unable to believe what they are watching.

All Russian athletes to be banned from Paralympic Games in Rio Read more

Announcing the decision to ban Russian athletes from the competition, the International Paralympic Committee president, Sir Philip Craven, launched a scathing attack on the Russian government and a state-sponsored doping system that subverted a run of major sporting events including the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

“I believe the Russian government has catastrophically failed its Para athletes. Their medals over morals mentality disgusts me. The complete corruption of the anti-doping system is contrary to the rules and strikes at the very heart of the spirit of Paralympic sport.

“It shows a blatant disregard for the health and wellbeing of athletes and, quite simply, has no place in Paralympic sport,” said Craven, himself a former wheelchair basketball player.

“Their thirst for glory at all costs has severely damaged the integrity and image of all sports, and has certainly resulted in a devastating outcome for the Russian Paralympic Committee and Para athletes.”

But in response the Russian ministry of sport spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, called the decision to ban Russia’s Paralympic team, which finished second in the medal table in London, inhumane in a posting on her Facebook page.

“The decision to bar the entire Russian Paralympic team from the Paralympic Games is strikingly filthy and inhumane,” she wrote. “It is a betrayal of those high human rights standards the modern world is resting on.”

IOC president hits out at Wada’s ‘nuclear option’ over Russia’s Rio Olympians Read more

Craven said that he had “no idea” whether Putin was aware of the extent of the cheating and corruption that permeated throughout the entire Russian sporting system and was directed from the Russian ministry of sport, headed by the Fifa council member and World Cup 2018 organising committee chief, Vitaly Mutko.

The move, as exclusively revealed by the Observer on Saturday, was immediately praised by those including the World Anti-Doping Agency which believed the IOC should have taken stronger action in the wake of a report by Professor Richard McLaren, which revealed hundreds of covered-up doping tests in the majority of Olympic and Paralympic sports over a four-year period.

It will further damage the credibility of the IOC and its president, Thomas Bach, who has close links to Putin.

Bach insisted on the eve of the Games that he could look every athlete in the eye after reaching his decision and that the scandal hadn’t damaged the IOC in the troubled run up to the Rio Games.

McLaren detailed a “disappearing positive” protocol that allowed high-profile athletes who had failed tests to change the result and uncovered a system in play at the Sochi Winter Olympics and Paralympics that allowed Russian security forces to tamper with samples passed through a hole in the lab wall.

The IPC’s bold move is likely to immediately be appealed against by the Russians, who have argued throughout that it is unfair to punish individual athletes if they can prove they are clean. The IPC is understood to feel it has made the decision on safe legal grounds and that it will hold.

Craven argued eloquently that the punishment was being applied due to the breakdown of trust caused by the complete failure of the Russian system and the need to hold its members accountable.

Doping crisis has not damaged IOC, claims Thomas Bach Read more

Whereas the IOC opted to allow individual sporting federations to decide whether Russian athletes should compete in the wake of jaw-dropping evidence of state sponsored doping uncovered by McLaren, Craven argued that the Russian system was so “broken, corrupted and entirely compromised” that it must face the ultimate sanction.

“The facts really do hurt; they are an unprecedented attack on every clean athlete who competes in sport,” said Craven. “Tragically, this situation is not about athletes cheating a system, but about a state-run system that is cheating the athletes. The doping culture that is polluting Russian sport stems from the Russian government and has now been uncovered in not one, but two independent reports commissioned by the Wada.”

The first of those reports, headed by the founding Wada president, Dick Pound, detailed corruption and covered up tests in athletics that compromised the London Olympics and other events.

The second, helmed by McLaren, was commissioned in the wake of claims by the former Moscow and Sochi lab chief Grigory Rodchenkov in the New York Times.

Pound, an IOC member like Craven, said this weekend that he was “hugely disappointed” by the IOC’s “lack of resolve”. “This was a perfect opportunity for the IOC to provide moral leadership in regard to a country that showed complete contempt for the rules of the game,” said Pound.

In contrast, anti-doping officials praised the IPC’s stance. “The IPC showed strong leadership today in holding Russia’s state-organised doping program accountable,” said Travis Tygart, the US Anti-Doping Agency chief executive, who helped uncover Lance Armstrong.

“Their unanimous decision goes a long way towards inspiring us all – most importantly clean athletes – and upholding the Paralympic values we admire.”

Athletes took to Twitter to express support for the IPC’s strong stance. Liz Johnson, the British Paralympic swimmer, said: “Have to feel for all of the clean athletes who won’t get opportunity to compete but integrity of sport is priority.”

Todd Nicholson, the IPC athlete council chair and a five-time Paralympian, said: “This is bigger than any medal. This is about the future of Paralympic sport.”

Craven, who said the next World Cup hosts were not fit to stage any major sporting events until their anti-doping system was reformed, added: “Russia is a great sporting nation. It has lost its greatness and it needs to get it back.”

After working further with McLaren, the IPC has now identified at least 27 samples from eight Paralympic sports subject to government interference, of which 11 were changed from positive to negative. It has also uncovered further evidence of sample bottles being tampered with to replace tainted samples with clean urine.

McLaren, who is continuing his investigation and expects to deliver a supplementary report by the end of September, told the Guardian last week he believed the IOC had completely misinterpreted his findings.

In contrast to the IPC, he said it did not get in contact with him before making its decision and underlined that he could back up all his findings with evidence that had been safely secured.

The IOC executive board came under heavy fire for its confusing and chaotic solution, which has resulted in 278 Russian athletes being cleared to compete in Rio. Only athletics, which banned all but one of 68 Russians entered, rowing and weightlifting took a robust stance.

Team GB medal haul will cover more sports in Rio, says Paralympic chief Read more

On Saturday, the judoka Beslan Mudranov celebrated Russia’s first gold medal of the Games. He will be paraded before fans at Russia House, a facility built at great expense at Fort Copacabana at the far end of the famous beach.

Decorated by hoardings featuring huge images of Russian medal hopes, the country’s flag flies in defiance over what was one of the focal points for the opening weekend’s action.

Inside there is a stage where medal winners will be presented to accredited supporters enjoying Russian specialities and looking at memorabilia donated by previous Russian Olympic champions.

Looking out over Copacabana, visitors can pick up a Russian “supporter’s pack”, try on the jersey of the former basketball player Andrei Kirilenko or twirl the batons used by the rhythmic gymnast Margarita Mamun.

But staff feigned ignorance when asked about the difficulties of preparing the facilities under the cloud of the doping scandal or the impact of the crisis.

As the peloton of the women’s road race steamed past, they were putting the finishing touches to a programme of events and parties designed to promote Russia and its athletes – none of whom knew definitively whether they were coming to the Games until a fortnight before the opening ceremony.

One, the controversial swimmer Yuliya Efimova, was only readmitted to the Olympics on the very eve of competition. She was one seven athletes who successfully challenged an IOC provision that Russian athletes who had previously served doping bans should not be allowed to compete.

The four-times world champion Efimova, twice previously banned for doping, won her 100m breaststroke heat, defying boos from the crowd, and like many of her fellow Russian athletes said she was relieved to be in Rio.

“Well, I don’t know what to say. I was crazy the last half-year. I just didn’t know what was going on. I’m just happy to be here and I’m ready to race.”

Mutko has been critical of those sporting federations, including the International Association of Athletics Federations, that have taken a strong stance and paid tribute to suspended Russian track and field athletes in a special event before the Games.

The ban overturned on appeal by Efimova, made by the IOC based on a six-month-old offer by the Russians as a quid pro quo, appeared to be partially designed to keep the whistleblower Yulia Stepanova out of the Games.

The athletics federation, which banned all but one Russian athlete, had wanted Stepanova – who along with her husband Vitaly blew the whistle on the Russian system in a 2014 Germany documentary – to run as a neutral in recognition of her role.

A petition calling on the IOC to allow her to compete gained more than 240,000 signatures but Stepanova said on the eve of the Games she would not further press her case, saying she was “hugely sad and heartbroken” at a lack of support from the IOC.

Other bodies, including the IAAF and Wada, have been wholehearted in their praise for her bravery in exposing the state sponsored system.