Global antidoping authorities have begun assessing the cases of individual athletes implicated in Russia’s yearslong doping program that was exposed last year, and their early decisions are expected to fuel the debate over Russian athletes’ eligibility.
The World Anti-Doping Agency, the regulator of drugs in sports that produced mountainous evidence of Russia’s doping scheme, has agreed to clear 95 of the first 96 athletes whose cases have been reviewed, according to an internal report circulated among the organization’s executives in recent days.
The closed cases are likely to set off a debate in the sports world over whether Russia’s schemes were so successful in destroying evidence that defensible cases cannot be built against some athletes, or whether officials have taken a soft approach to punishments.