Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said his ministry would ask the Russian Olympics Committee (ROC) to apply to the IAAF and the worldwide Olympics Committee (IOC) to request that Russian athletes compete under a ROC flag.
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Worldwide Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach says he’s confident that Brazilian authorities can protect next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro despite the deadly attacks in Paris. “I am convinced that everything can still be rectified”, Mutko said Saturday, the TASS news agency reported.
Doping could cast a shadow over Kenya at the 2016 Rio Olympics unless the East African nation implements credible systems to root out drugs cheats, said veteran Kenya-based coach Brother Colm O’Connell.
Bach insisted Russian track and field athletes would only return if the country falls into line with all anti-doping rules and its reforms are verifiable.
The lack of attention has led to the provisional suspension of Russian Federation over allegations of state-sponsored doping.
Any decision to suspend the IAAF from the Games would need to be made by the worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC).
The IOC has previously allowed independents to compete at Olympic Games in certain cases, such as when an athlete’s home country is in transition or subject to sanctions.
The International Olympic Committee is not interested in a Russian athletes’ plan to compete as individuals at the Rio 2016 Games under the Olympics banner.
ARAF general secretary Mikhail Butov told R-Sport: “If there is something that doesn’t satisfy us then there is sense in talking about an appeal”.
Richard McLaren, one of three members of the WADA panel that produced the report on Russian Federation, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Sunday that the IAAF itself could potentially be found non-compliant in the second phase of the report. “If the Russian athletics federation is not compliant and the athletes can not take part in any kind of qualifications, then the situation is clear”.
The eastern European powerhouse, fourth in the London 2012 Olympic medal table, was accused of running a “state supported” doping programme by a World Anti-Doping Agency commission report this week.
“It was meant to divert the blow from themselves” he said.
The election of the ARAF President will be held on January 16 at the federation’s emergency conference.
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Reedie backed Lord Coe to confront what he admitted was the worst scandal he had seen in his decades in sports administration, amid intense scrutiny of the IAAF president over his ties to a regime that is under investigation for allegedly taking bribes to cover up doping.
