“In my opinion, the International Olympic Committee has made a very reasonable and balanced decision, and most importantly, that the Russian athletes will now be able to quickly file their claims and decide the possibility of performing in Rio de Janeiro on a case-by-case basis”, Bogoslovskaya said.
Advertisement
The IAAF had said on Friday that any Russian athlete would have to compete under a neutral flag, a recommendation it reiterated on Tuesday following Bach’s comments.
Russian Federation and Kenya have both been declared “non-compliant” with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s code and Bach said the International Olympic Committee had “very serious doubts” over the presumption of innocence for athletes from these countries.
Sportspeople from countries deemed “non-compliant” with anti-doping rules will have to be declared eligible by their sport’s worldwide federation.
“In this decision-making process, the absence of a positive national anti-doping test should not be considered sufficient by the IFs”.
The meeting comes four days after the IAAF, track and field’s world governing body, upheld its ban first imposed in November on Russia’s team for a “systematic and deeply-rooted culture of doping”.
It has responded that Russian athletes will only be allowed to take part in an individual capacity as so-called “neutral athletes”.
Bach acknowledged that the Russians were taking their case against the ban to CAS, the highest court in sports.
“We’re going to be following the (Olympic) selection criteria and living with a confident feeling that some will go to the Olympics, that they’ll let some of our athletes in”, he said. Even without those changes, the IOC seems committed to keeping Russians out of the games.
Banning clean athletes from the Rio Olympic Games contradicts the values of the Olympic movement and violates the principles of the Olympic Charter, he said.
“And in Russian Federation, you have serious allegations about the manipulation of the anti-doping system”, he said. There are no teams of worldwide federations there.
The IAAF left “a crack in the door” for what will probably be a very small number of Russian athletes who can demonstrate a clean record from credible testing agencies.
The head coach of the Russian track federation, Yuri Borzakovsky, said the country had not yet given up on sending at least some of its athletes to Rio de Janeiro.
“We believe that the rights of the athletes, who were never involved in doping use and have recently been tested multiple times, must be protected”, he said. “We understand that the IAAF has to take its decision so anything I would say here would be mere speculation”.
The IOC on Monday agreed with the spirit of the IAAF’s decision, but said that Russian athletes who are allowed to compete will do so under their country’s flag.
Bach also said the summit, including sports federations and Olympic committees, had made a decision to fully review the anti-doping system, calling on the World Anti-Doping Agency to hold a global conference next year.
The International Olympic Committee has declared individual sports federations will be charged with ensuring competitors from those countries are clean, and therefore eligible to compete at the Rio Games. Putin clearly hoped the International Olympic Committee would let some Russians compete: On Tuesday, his press secretary Dmitri Peskov said nobody was “interested in creating such a precedent” as a blanket ban. “We expect the results of these potential court cases”.
Advertisement
Speaking in Nairobi, Keino said he agrees with IOC demand to increase the frequency of sample testing and meet the global anti-doping standards. Even those who pass will be under a cloud of suspicion: recent WADA reports on Russian Federation have thoroughly ruined the country’s reputation.
