The report, which was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping agency, confirmed what whistleblowers have alleged: that Russian authorities had covered up state-sponsored doping of their athletes during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
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Any Russian athlete who has served a doping ban will not be eligible for next month’s Olympics.
Rio 2016 is committed to clean Olympic Games and will follow the decisions on Russian athletes made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and international sports federations, organising committee president Carlos Nuzman said on Sunday (24 July).
The International Tennis Federation said on Sunday the eight Russian tennis players who have been nominated to take part in the Rio 2016 Olympics meet the criteria of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The appeal questioned the validity of the IAAF decision and sought to ensure the participation in Rio of athletes who are not accused of any doping violation.
The committee says it is leaving it up to each worldwide sports federation to decide which Russian athletes to accept in their sports.
“Many International Federations will have neither the time nor capacity to make the quick and clear decisions necessary let alone do it in a consistent way” says Mr Steel.
The IAAF had previously granted Russian track athlete and whistle-blower Yuliya Stepanova permission to compete in the games as an “independent neutral athlete” – because of her “truly exceptional contribution to the protection and promotion of clean athletes”.
The decision was taken against the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) recommendation. The prospect still leaves open the possibility that more Russian athletes could be banned.
Calls for a suspension of all Russians had grown following the publication on Monday of a damning report by Professor Richard McLaren – independently produced at the request of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) – that found protection of doped athletes in the country had been “directed [and] controlled” at state level.
Defending their decision, the International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said the decision was in the individual interests of Russia’s clean athletes. In other words, Russian athletes could still be barred from competing in Rio in specific sports, just not all of them at once. “I’m sure the majority of our team will comply”.
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The IOC on Sunday opted to afford each Russian athlete the opportunity to prove their innocence to the respective worldwide federations governing their sport, despite there being less than two weeks until the Olympics begin in Brazil. The United States led a political boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games and the Soviet Union led an Eastern Bloc boycott of the Los Angeles Games four years later.
