With the games in Pyeongchang still two months away, some are wondering whether anyone of interest is actually going to turn up. This casts an even bigger spotlight on the IOC, and they always knew that their action against Russia would be subject to the closest scrutiny.

Russian gangsters, gamblers and high rollers

The background reads like something from a spy movie or novel. When the World Anti-Doping Agency published its damning report, detailing a cover-up that involved sample-swapping and affected more than 1,000 athletes, the IOC was criticized for not ejecting Russia from Rio 2016 straight away.

But there are powerful and influential wheels at work. Billions of dollars rest on the Olympics, and that is before you consider the money that changes hands in the bookmakers and high roller casinos. The Committee needed to act decisively, transparently and most of all, carefully, and that is exactly what it has done.

It conducted its own independent investigation into the entire scandal, and if anything, the results were even more damning than those of the WADA. The investigation found that responsibility for the robust and organized system of corruption lay squarely on the shoulders of the Russian Ministry of Sport. Thomas Bach, the IOC president, described it as: “an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport.”

A turbulent history

This is not the first time the IOC has been rocked by scandal. The Sochi games were dogged by controversy, and who can forget the bribery allegations in the run up to the 2002 event in Salt Lake City? All this history and the damning conclusions of the IOC’s own investigators backed the committee into something of a corner, leaving them with no choice but to take an uncompromising stance. Anything less would have left the entire games with little remaining credibility and with severe doubts over its integrity.

Winter Games without Russia

And so it is that we will see not a trace of Russia at the Pyeongchang games next February. The Russian flag, anthem and uniforms will be outlawed, and although Russian athletes will still be permitted to participate, they will be forced to do so as neutrals.

Russia also has the ignominy of its deputy Prime Minister, Vitaly Mutko, who was Minister of Sport at the time of the incident, being handed a lifetime ban from Olympic events. Russia has maintained that no state-sponsored doping took place, and the report avoided going so far as to use the phrase.

There is a general sense of relief that the IOC stopped short of banning all Russians from competing, although any who have previously tested positive are immediately deemed ineligible.