Stepanova, who provided evidence of doping in a series of German broadcaster ARD documentaries, has fled Russian Federation and is living in hiding at an undisclosed location in North America, fearing for her safety.
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The IOC threw Russian sportsmen and women a lifeline ignoring a call from the World Anti-Doping Agency to impose a blanket ban, ruling instead that decisions on whether individual competitors could compete at Rio would be left to the worldwide sports federations.
It also said the 30-year-old, who was forced to flee Russian Federation in 2014 for speaking out against the country’s state-run doping programme, could not compete as a “neutral athlete” as that was against Olympic rules.
The IOC invited the middle-distance runner and her husband to attend next month’s Games as guests but denied her a competitive spot in Rio, arguing her doping-tainted past made her ineligible. Sports federations can also reject Russian entries if they have not undergone enough global drug testing.
The ICF says they were all in World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren’s report last week, which detailed how Russian state officials allegedly intervened to cover up hundreds of failed drug tests. A similar International Olympic Committee measure, known as the Osaka Rule, which would have prohibited any athletes who had received doping bans from competing in the subsequent Olympics, was declared invalid by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The IOC said any Russian athlete with a doping past, including Stepanova, would not be allowed to compete in Rio as it tightened controls following the fallout from the doping scandal involving their country.
Russia’s three-member archery team was cleared on Monday (Tuesday NZT) to take part by the World Archery Federation, while all seven Russian tennis players were cleared by the International Tennis Federation.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said that Putin would not be attending the opening ceremony of the Rio games, but that the Kremlin was pleased with the International Olympic Committee ruling. It said it would establish a “pool of Russian eligible athletes”.
Boxing’s governing body, AIBA, said it was examining Russia’s entrants.
“We are reviewing and analyzing, on a case by case basis, the anti-doping record of the 11 Russian boxers now qualified for Rio 2016”, AIBA said.
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The IOC’s decision on Sunday left questions of eligibility up to each of the 28 worldwide federations, subject to approval by an expert from the Court of Arbitration for Sport and acceptance of entries by the IOC.
