The International Olympic Committee’s decision to postpone the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo due to the coronavirus pandemic is having an unintended effect on athletes who were suspended from international competition because of doping.
Athletes banned from Tokyo Olympics for doping might be able to compete after all
A delay to the games is creating an unprecedented scenario.
Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Athletes with bans set to expire later this year are now trying to gain entry into the Tokyo Games, which have been pushed back to 2021. The original intention behind these suspensions was the belief that banned athletes wouldn’t be eligible to compete in Tokyo. With Olympic qualifiers postponed from the spring until after the pandemic, the extra year is allowing some to serve out their timed suspensions before presumably being allowed to compete in the Olympics.
The Athletics Integrity Unit, which oversees doping penalties independently from the IAAF, estimates 40 banned athletes from track and field alone would benefit from the one-year delay and be able to compete in Tokyo, should their bans lift as planned. It could lead to a drawn out fight between banned athletes and officials, with voices inside Olympic sport split on how to proceed.
World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka told the Associated Press that officials can’t “cherry pick” who is allowed to compete based on the delay due to coronavirus. Banka is taking an approach which dictates athletes should be allowed to return to sport if they “served the time,” a reaction which is being met with anger by some prospective Olympians.
“It doesn’t seem like a fair punishment,” Irish race walker Brendan Boyce told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “They haven’t really missed the events they were supposed to miss.”
The timing of the pandemic, which interrupted Olympic qualifiers around the world, also raises questions about the fairness of proceeding under a scenario where banned athletes are suddenly allowed to compete. Clean athletes, with no bans on their record, undoubtedly looked at the field and their chances to qualify for Tokyo before making the decision to try to reach the games. Now their place could be in flux with returning athletes convicted of doping getting an extra chance at the games because of circumstance.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe took a measured approach to the situation, saying governing bodies will need to make a determination on the issue, but has larger issues to deal with at the moment.
“This is something we will need to look at,” Coe said. “I know it’s something the Athletics Integrity Unit, and I’m sure all the other agencies out there in concert with our sports, will need to think about, and that will just be another issue in an overflowing inbox at the moment.”
The question that will arise from the possibility of these athletes returning is whether their bans would have been made longer, had officials known the timeline for the Olympics would be extended. Gamze Bulut, a Turkish sprinter banned in May 2016 for doping would have missed both the Rio and Tokyo games as punishment. Now she potentially stands to only miss one Olympics because of the situation. Others find themselves in similar situations.
Time will tell how the IOC and others will adapt to this new hurdle, but it’s unquestionable that the intention was not to have these athletes compete in Tokyo. Now we see how the games will proceed.
