Former World Indoor Championship gold medal winner Derval O'Rourke has said it would be "naive" to think athletics' doping problems start and end with the Russians, and implored WADA to step up the fight against cheating in all countries.
On Thursday, Russia lost an appeal against the decision to ban their athletics team from the Rio Olympics next month.
Russia had taken the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport when athletics' world governing body the IAAF upheld a global competition ban against the Russian athletics federation in the wake of a damning World Anti-Doping Agency report into widespread doping in Russian track and field.
Corkwoman O'Rourke fully agrees with the decision, but warned the plague of doping casts a long shadow that extends throughout the globe.
“For me as a clean athlete, it’s good to see things getting cleaner." - Derval O'Rourke
“I wouldn’t fancy them being in the Olympics, that’s just my opinion on it, but I also think there’s a lot of doping problems in a lot of other countries and thinking that the problem starts and ends in Russia is a little bit naïve," she said at the launch of RTÉ Sport's Olympic Games coverage.
"I hope WADA go to the same trouble for all the countries as they’re going to do for Russia.
“For me as a clean athlete, it’s good to see things getting cleaner and for the sport being cleaned up. It’s only positive. It might seem negative in the media, but for me as an athlete it’s definitely positive."
Former Irish Olympian Jerry Kiernan admitted his relief at CAS's decision to uphold the ban and revealed his fears that the Russians would get a reprieve.
“I was afraid that CAS would actually find in favour of them," said Kiernan, who represented his country in the men's marathon at the 1984 Games in LA.
"CAS have done daft things in the past. They allowed Oscar Pistorius to run four years ago (in London 2012 despite having two prosthetic limbs), when he should never have, and they caused the IAAF to suspend their inter-sex policy.
"So CAS could have done anything, but I’m glad that they’ve decided that the Russians can’t run. It means it’ll make it easier for the IOC to tell the Russians that they can’t participate in the Olympic Games in any sport, which is the right decision to make."
