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International Olympic Committee confirms ban on Russians, but question remains

Bach also said the summit, including sports federations and Olympic committees, had made a decision to fully review the anti-doping system, calling on World Anti-doping Agency to hold a global conference next year.

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After that IAAF suspended all Russian track and field athletes from competition and ordered the Russian Athletics Federation and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) to rectify the violations uncovered during an global probe to be able to compete again. The team – including two-time pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva – remains barred from the games.

FILE – In this file photo taken on Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012, Russia’s Natalya Antyukh displays the gold medal for women’s 400-meter hurdles during a ceremony in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics, London.

Alexander Zhukov said in comments carried by state news agency Tass that Russian Federation “will not boycott the Olympics”, but he adds that the national Olympic committee will consider a lawsuit against the IAAF.

Further scrutiny for Russian and Kenyan athletes. “There are universally recognized principles of law and one of them is that the responsibility should be always personified”, Putin said.

The summit did not undermine the IAAF ban on Russian Federation as a whole.

“The thing which has disappointed me in recent months has been this unseemly haste with which the International Olympic Committee has wanted to usher Russian Federation back in under whatever circumstances it can”, he said. “We stand for the concise doping control system”.

Russia fully supports the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s declaration, adopted on Tuesday at the organisation’s summit in Lausanne, on the transparent and effective anti-doping system, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Wednesday.

“The IAAF will now work with the International Olympic Committee to ensure the decision is respected and implemented in full”.

The Russian sports ministry, critical of the IAAF ban, says its Olympians are ready to go beyond the normal anti-doping tests to show their commitment to clean and fair sport.

The athletes addressed a letter to International Olympic Committee head Thomas Bach saying it would be unfair if Russian track-and-field athletes with no record of using banned substances were not allowed to go to Rio.

The status of other sports in Russian Federation, as well as other countries and sports with poor doping records, could also come under scrutiny. But it was clear that those athletes should be in neutral colours, under an International Olympic Committee flag.

The chief coach stressed that the athletes in the Russian squad meet all necessary criteria for participation in the 2016 Olympic Games.

Isinbayeva has threatened to sue world athletics governing body the IAAF over the Olympic ban – imposed due to state sponsored doping and mass corruption – and she stressed on Tuesday that she hasn’t thrown in the towel.

It’s unlikely the IOC would allow an admitted doper to compete under the Olympic flag, so another solution would have to be found.

With the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) declaring both Kenya and Russian Federation “non-compliant”, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said athletes from those countries could no longer be “presumed innocent”.

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In addition to Russia, Kenya — home to numerous world’s top distance runners — is now deemed non-compliant by WADA.

Some Russian Olympians could compete under their own flag