IOC’s Decision to Strip Russian Athlete Lebedeva of Olympic Medals ‘Madness’

A decision of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) to strip Russian triple jump and long jump champion Tatiana Lebedeva and other Russian athletes of their medals from the 2008 Olympics is “mad” as it shows that sport is turning into politics, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, the IOC published a press release in which it said that Lebedeva had been stripped of her silver medals from the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, obtained in the women’s triple jump event and the women’s long jump event after banned substances were allegedly found during repeat tests of her samples from the games.

“This is a kind of madness … I believe that sports world is turning into politics,” Mutko told R-Sport commenting on IOC’s move.

During its doping retests, the IOC has already stripped Russia’s national team of thirteen Olympic medals from 2008 Olympics in Beijing and six medals from 2012 Olympics in London.

He also commented on the decision of the International Ski Federation (FIS) to uphold the provisional suspensions of Russian skiers Evgeniy Belov, Julia Ivanova, Alexander Legkov, Evgenia Shapovalova, Alexey Petukhov and Maxim Vylegzhanin from competitions due to alleged violations of anti-doping rules, stressing the unfair treatment of the Russian athletes.

“No athlete in the world has been suspended for the same reasons the Russian athletes have been suspended … I hope that unbiased social movements in sports will bring this to a close,” Mutko said.

The doping scandal, which erupted last year months before the opening of the Summer Olympics in Rio, disqualified many Russian athletes from both Olympic and Paralympic games in Brazil.