So it appears the IOC has passed the buck. Rather than issue a blanket ban of all Russian athletes from the Olympics, as the evidence in the McLaren Report would indicate should happen, it has turned the decision over to each individual sport federation.

The moment the McLaren Report was issued the World Anti-Doping Agency called for a complete ban of all Russian athletes and officials. The IOC resisted, possibly because of this: consider that Russian President Putin did the Olympics a huge favor by holding the Winter Games in Sochi a couple of years ago and the IOC’s President Thomas Bach seems to think his friend Putin is owed something. I read here:

Bach is totally beholden to Russia President Vladimir Putin, the man who spent $51 billion to put the Olympics in the middle of nowhere (Sochi), endearing himself to Bach and the IOC if not forever, at least through the summer of 2016.

It’s hard to imagine Bach not caving in to his buddy Putin and letting the Russians compete in Rio.

But he shouldn’t. In his relatively new IOC presidency, this is the challenge of a lifetime. What he decides will be his legacy. He will forever be known as the man who let the cheaters in — or as the man who did not.

If Bach is indeed beholden to Putin and this refusal to ban his country’s cheaters is the result, Bach should be thrown out of his job just as Sepp Blatter eventually was at FIFA. All the Olympics has is integrity, and it took a long time for it to recover from the doping of the Cold War. Hell, you can still make jokes like “A two from the East German judge” and depending on the age of the listener you’ll get a big laugh.

Here’s a timeline of decisions made by some of the individual sports federations. What a surprise — none of them are banning Russian athletes. Bach’s leadership is forever suspect, and so is his judgment.