The International Olympic Committee (IOC) held a meeting of its Executive Board after damning evidence was given by Richard McLaren about doping by the Russian sports ministry. In particular, McLaren identified a wide-ranging doping scandal that directly affected results of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
In a statement released by the Executive Board on July 19 (which can be read in its entirety here), the IOC “fully supports [McLaren’s] request to continue and finalise his work”. McLaren had stated during his press conference on July 18 that given the compressed time line to have a report out (roughly two months), he could not give as detailed of a report as he would have liked.
The IOC went on to say: “…the IOC asks all International Olympic Winter Sports Federations to freeze their preparations for major events in Russia, such as World Championships, World Cups or other major international competitions under their responsibility, and to actively look for alternative organisers.”
With the IBSF scheduled to host its 2017 World Championships in Sochi, the federation has now been tasked by the IOC to find a new home for its premiere event. Currently Calgary, Park City, Sigulda, and La Plagne are off the 2016/2017 IBSF World Cup schedule, and seemingly could host a World Championships on relatively short notice. Of course, there’s always the option of rearranging the schedule to put another World Cup race in one of those locations and give the World Championships to an already-scheduled location.
The FIL does not have a World Cup stop for their artificial track schedule, however their natural track schedule (which has not been released yet) did have Moscow on it last season.
The IOC went on to establish a “Disciplinary Commission” to decide to what levels of sanctions it can pass out to Russia.
