IPC stamps its authority where IOC feared to tread

After weeks of obfuscation, buck-passing and delay, a major sporting governance organization finally found the courage to make a tricky but justified decision. Unfortunately, the IPC's bold call on Sunday came a few days after its bigger brother, the IOC, had gone in the opposite direction.

That two bodies who perform near-identical functions could look at the same evidence - of an enormous Russian state-sponsored doping program - and come to such contrasting conclusions must damn one or the other. There's no doubt it's the IOC that has come off worse in the eyes of athletes, anti-doping agencies and the public.

To see the moral chasm in the positions of the two organizations, it's necessary only to look at recent quotes from their leaders.

"Tragically, this situation is not about athletes cheating a system, but about a state-run system that is cheating the athletes," IPC president Sir Philip Craven said on Sunday.

"I believe the Russian government has catastrophically failed its para-athletes," he continued, before delivering the coup de grace: "Their medals over morals mentality disgusts me."

Craven has been widely praised for his position. He acknowledged that the decision may be unfair on some athletes but accepted that it is the responsibility of sport's guardians to put the needs of the many – and the integrity of competition – over the feelings of the few.

Now Bach, last week: "This blanket ban of the Russian Olympic Committee has been called by some the 'nuclear option,' and the innocent athletes would have to be considered as collateral damage," Bach said.

"Leaving aside that such a comparison is completely out of any proportion when it comes to the rules of sport, let us just for a moment consider the consequences of a 'nuclear option.' The result is death and devastation."

When Bach, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaks of "death and devastation," it's fair to assume he's referring to those Russians who would have missed the Games. What he should have been concentrating on is the Games themselves.

Each time an athlete fails a drug test, the integrity of an event that, more than any other, prides itself on fair play and respect, takes a hit. When an entire country, and a major one at that, is doping its athletes, it's hard to draw any other conclusion than that the whole thing is rotten. Right now, that's Bach's legacy.

The Rio 2016 Paralympics begins on September 7, and 267 Russian athletes across 18 sports will miss out. For those who have done nothing wrong, that's tough to take. But for those who love the Olympic movement, it'll be a whole lot easier to swallow than the sight of a Russian athlete on the podium in Rio this month.