russian athlete
© us.makemefeed.comBanned from Rio?
Reports by WADA lawyer cast doubt on his own report but the Western media reaction suggests that a ban is already decided irrespective of the outcome of the court case in Lausanne. McLaren, the Canadian lawyer who drafted the WADA report, has given a very interesting interview to RT. I presume RT is reporting it correctly. He admits he did not speak to or question the Russians before writing his report and he also refuses to disclose key parts of his evidence.

The prosecutor presents his case and then delivers his verdict without disclosing his evidence (which in the circumstances we can be forgiven for wondering whether it even exists) or interviewing the accused, who is thereby denied the right to state his case or respond to the charges brought against him. Yet we are asked to accept McLaren's report as objective and impartial.

Unfortunately the probability is that most people in the West will do so. Here in Britain the media has been unbelievably selective in reporting this story. For example they have not reported that Russian athletes have appealed the ban to the Court of Arbitration in Lausanne or their grounds for doing so. Nor have they disclosed that the test samples provided by Russian athletes are now being tested in Britain.

Most shocking of all - at least to me - is that they are reporting the WADA demand that the presumption of innocence should no longer apply to Russian athletes without making any adverse comment. On the contrary many support it. I never thought to see or hear such a thing - a fundamental principle blithely set aside without a single voice of protest - but now it is happening, and unfortunately it just goes to show that where Russia and Russians are concerned anything is now possible.

The failure to report the case in the Court of Arbitration is particularly worrying. It probably means that the decision there is a foregone conclusion and that the case is going to be dismissed. I wonder whether, in the unlikely event the case is successful, the IOC and the IAAF would pay it any attention anyway.