Swimming governing body FINA has ruled seven Russian swimmers ineligible to compete at the Olympics, including three it says were linked to recent allegations of a major doping cover-up by Russian authorities. The others are Natalya Lovtsova, Anastasia Krapivina and Mikhail Dovgalyuk.
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The International Olympic Committee left the decision on competitors’ eligibility up to their respective sporting federations, the IOC said in a statement Sunday.
Meanwhile, his agents were working late into the night at the Sochi doping lab, exchanging urine samples taken from the country’s athletes for clean ones in an elaborate scheme to escape detection. He cheered Russian athletes in arenas and in the mountains, and celebrated with them as they added to the host country’s medal haul.
The goal seems to be to allow participation of Russian athletes who have never tested positive for use of performance-enhancing drugs – conveniently neglecting the fact that many perpetrators haven’t been caught precisely because the Russian state set up a system enabling them to cheat with impunity. Results of Russian tests will not be accepted following allegations of routine cover-ups at Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory.
“In a statement released Monday, WADA called on the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee to decline all athletic entries, for Rio 2016, from the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and the Russian Paralympic Committee”.
“The intention to defend the athletes is there”, she told R-Sport. The inexplicable decision to allow Russians to compete in Rio is a slap in the face to both clean athletes and those around the world who work hard to try and ensure the playing field is level.
MOSCOW/BELGRADE The International Judo Federation – which lists Russian President Vladimir Putin as its honorary president – will allow the sport’s Russian squad to participate in the Olympics, its head told Reuters on Tuesday.
“We had to balance the collective responsibility and the individual justice to which every human being and athlete is entitled to”, IOC President Thomas Bach said, according to a report from The Associated Press. Some athletic federations have said they’d ban some competitors in their sports, especially those sports that have had a lot of doping problems, for instance – weightlifting. The global swimming federation (known by its French acronym FINA) said it had ruled to ban these swimmers in the wake of the doping scandal rocking Russia in the past few months. Independent investigator Richard McLaren, appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, uncovered a state-run Russian doping program that spanned four years and 28 summer and winter Olympic sports.
The International Federation of Gymnastics said it would “as soon as possible establish the “pool of Russian eligible athletes”, and will have it verified as requested, then forward it to all concerned parties”.
“We have a tentative lineup, but that’s absolutely tentative and we would not reveal that lineup at the moment yet, because most likely there will be changes as time goes”, said Karolyi, adding that the lineup won’t be finalized until next week.
When more than 100 athletes in the former Soviet Union tested positive for the newly banned substance meldonium earlier this year, it emerged many had been taking it not to enhance performance, but on the advice of coaches who believed it would prevent heart attacks, despite little evidence for the claim. Opening Ceremonies are on August 5.
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Chiller says alternative arrangements have been made for athletes that are arriving in the next three days. Eleven Russian boxers have boxers for Rio, including reigning world champions Vitaly Dunaytsev and Evgeny Tishchenko. She called on the International Olympic Committee “to review their decision on the basis of the information provided”.
