However, competition organizers – in Rio’s case the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – will have the final say.
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But the IAAF left the door ajar and clean athletes can still compete in Rio if they can prove they have not been tainted by the disgraced Russian system.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said last month that all Russians deemed eligible to compete would do so under the Russian flag.
Fedorovtsev, 36, competed a week later at Olympic qualifying in Lucerne, where Russian Federation finished first to qualify. That means they would use the Russian flag.
The 29-year-old 800m runner Stepanova was herself banned for two years for doping offences in 2013, but she turned whistleblower as she informed the Wold Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) that doping was rife in Russian athletics.
The footage formed the basis of an investigation which found evidence of a state-sponsored doping programme in the country – a discovery which led to Russian Federation being banned from the Olympics.
“European Athletics is ready to accept her late entry, and we are awaiting further instruction from the IAAF Doping Review Board that has been put in place to discuss the eligibility of athletes’ requests”, European Athletics said in an earlier statement. But the IAAF also approved a measure allowing individuals to compete as “neutral athletes” if they can show they have been regularly tested by a reliable agency.
The WADA Independent Commission published on November 9 past year the results of its probe into the activities of the ARAF, the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and the Russian Sports Ministry. While Brilliantova did not name the duo, they are likely to be the U.S.-based long jumper Daria Klishina, who is a two-time European indoor champion, and the Italy-based pole vaulter Alyona Lutkovskaya. The deadline to apply is Monday, with a decision on all claims by July 18, three weeks before the athletics starts in Rio.
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The Stepanovs alleged that officials within the now-disgraced Russian athletics federation supplied banned substances in exchange for 5% of an athlete’s earnings.
