IOC must get tougher on Russia - Pengilly

The International Olympic Committee should get much tougher on Russia by banning the country's Olympic Committee and not just recommending sanctions, former IOC member Adam Pengilly said on Tuesday.

The Briton, a former Olympic skeleton racer and IOC member from 2010-18 who was the only member to vote against an IOC decision on Russia over the country's doping scandals, said the Olympic ruling body needed to take a tougher stance.

In 2016 Pengilly had called for a blanket ban of Russia at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics over its doping scandal after the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

He voted against the IOC Executive Board's recommendation to leave it up to federations to clear Russian athletes to compete. Every other IOC member voted in favour.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many sports bodies have moved events and suspended Russian teams or athletes from competing while sponsors have ended contracts in protest against the war.

The IOC has recommended that events in Russia be cancelled or relocated and that Russian and Belarusian athletes not take part or compete under a neutral flag.

It has issued no sanctions against the Russia Olympic Committee and its leadership or against the Russian members of the IOC.

"The IOC has recommended that international sport federations take a view of suspending Russian athletes and Russian national federations," Pengilly, also a former board member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, told Reuters in an interview.

"Yet, the IOC have not suspended the Russian Olympic Committee. So on one hand, they're telling others to do it. But at the same time, they're not doing it themselves.

"Some might describe that as hypocritical. At least they've prompted others to do so but I think they should take a leaf