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Russian Athlete Says Banned Coaches Continue Working


Russian 1,500-meter runner Andrei Dmitriyev has said that Russian coaches who were banned for doping activities have continued to work with the country's athletes.

Speaking to Germany's ARD television on January 22, Dmitriyev said that, among others, coach Vladimir Kazarin has continued working.

Kazarin formerly trained track-and-field athlete Yulia Stepanova, whose revelations about systemic doping in Russia led to the country's athletics team being banned by the ruling International Association of Athletics Foundations (IAAF) and disqualified from the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

IAAF Chief Executive Officer Oliver Gers told ARD that, if Kazarin was still working, then Russia's athletics federation "has not fulfilled the conditions for reinstatement."

Also on January 22, German Olympic Committee head Alfons Hoerman told the Die Welt newspaper that Russia should be banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics and, possibly, the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo if it is confirmed that there was a state-run doping program in place.

Hoerman said that, given the extent of the doping revealed in two reports for the World Anti-Doping Agency by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, it was hard to believe the Russian Olympic Committee and government officials were unaware of it.

"That is almost impossible for a country like Russia," he said.

Based on reporting by dpa, ARD, and Reuters

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