“I hope that the majority of global federations will very promptly confirm the right of [Russian] sportspeople in different types of sports to take part in the Olympic Games”, Mr Mutko said.
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Russian officials and athletes mentioned in the independent report by Richard McLaren, which was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency and found the Russian Sports Ministry oversaw a vast programme to manipulate doping test results, won’t be accredited for Rio, the International Olympic Committee said.
The World Anti-Doping Agency added their voice to those criticising the International Olympic Committee’s failure to ban Russian Federation from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in the wake of doping revelations. While not imposing a blanket ban on all Russian athletes, the International Olympic Committee decision lays out specific, more stringent criteria for the roughly 400 Russians scheduled to participate in Rio.
He also sought to reassure the public that the majority of the Russian national team will meet the criteria.
The IOC said any Russian competitor must be subjected to a “rigorous additional out-of-competition testing programme in coordination with the relevant IF and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)”.
While that could curtail Russia’s participation in the Rio Olympics, it means that the exact number of participants and medal hopefuls representing the nation could remain in flux until days before the opening ceremony, which is scheduled for Aug 5.
Any Russian athlete who had ever been sanctioned for doping would be allowed to compete, regardless of whether they had served out their sanction period.
That means Russian tests can not be taken into consideration.
If the International Olympic Committee banned Russian Federation from Rio, it would be the first time a country had been excluded since 1988, when South Africa’s International Olympic Committee suspension over apartheid was in force.
Instead the responsibility will lie with the athlete’s respective sporting federations.
“Today I would like to say that we are satisfied with the decision”.
She was cleared by the IAAF to compete as a neutral athlete and returned to the European Championships this month.
New Zealand’s International Olympic Committee member Barry Maister told Radio New Zealand on Monday that he believed the latest move had “effectively frozen Russian Federation out of all sports at the moment”.
Rutherford praised the International Athletics Federation, led by president Sebastian Coe, for banning Russian track and field athletes who could not show they had been tested outside their country’s discredited anti-doping system.
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A World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) report released last week claimed a complex conspiracy by Russia’s security services working to tamper with and change sealed urine samples from its athletes.
