MOSCOW– Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva plans to file suit if Russia’s ban from global track and field competition remains in place and she is barred from competing at the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
“It’s a direct violation of human rights, discrimination,” Isinbayeva said.
Russia’s athletics federation was suspended by the IAAF in November after a World Anti-Doping Agency commission report detailed systematic, state-sponsored doping. The IAAF is due to rule next month on whether to reinstate Russia for the Rio Olympics in August.
“In the case of a negative ruling for us, I will personally go to an international court regarding human rights,” Isinbayeva said. “And I’m confident I’ll win.”
Speaking from her home city of Volgograd in a Skype interview arranged by Russian track officials, Isinbayeva held up four forms documenting recent drug tests she had passed — proof enough, she said, that she should be allowed to compete in Rio.
“Of course I’m angry because of this helplessness. All I can do now is train,” she said, adding that the careers of young Russian athletes could be destroyed if they have to wait until 2020 to compete in the Olympics. “Four years, it’s a long time. Many of them can be, how can you say, broken.”
Isinbayeva’s comments came as a key adviser to Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that Russia’s government supports making doping a criminal offense.
The adviser, Nataliya Zhelanova, told reporters at the ministry that Russia’s government hopes to get the law on the statute books for 2017.
