Russia's track-and-field athletes should not be allowed to compete in the Rio Olympics in August as there's not enough time to prove compliance with doping rules, a top U.S. official said.
Travis Tygart, chief executive for the U.S. Antidoping Agency, told Reuters and The New York Times on January 14 that Russia had taken no meaningful steps to put its house in order after being found running a state-sponsored doping operation.
"They're still attacking the brave and courageous whistle-blowers," Tygart told The Times. "There is no lab. There's no testing agency."
While everyone wants inclusion of a sports superpower like Russia, "We're a few months before the games and it's too late, even if they hold all of those who are responsible accountable. It's too late to assure that those in the state-supported doping program are clean," he said.
The Russian Federation was temporarily suspended by athletics' governing body in November after the World Antidoping Agency documented widespread doping backed by the state.
Top antidoping officials who spent part of this week in Moscow said the country was making efforts to reform.
