Russian fencers has been cleared to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics after the sport’s governing body found no grounds to exclude any of the team for doping.
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Russia’s full Olympic team would have consisted of 387 competitors but looks set to be drastically trimmed down following the International Olympic Committee’s Sunday decision.
The IOC had earlier also left the decision to individual sports federations to decide whether to accept Russians for the Rio Olympics.
The International Gymnastics Federation said it has established a “pool of eligible Russian athletes” and is awaiting IOC approval.
FISA said that those banned were “not at all considered to have participated in doping” but were being excluded as they “do not meet the conditions established by the International Olympic Committee”.
Putin, a keen practitioner of judo and ice hockey, made his comments to over 100 sportspeople, some of whom have been banned from going to the Rio Games next month because of doping allegations by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and other federations. “I am in shock, but we won’t stop the battle”.
“The complexities of the matter can not be understated and the New Zealand Olympic Committee is satisfied the IOC has considered the issues with the utmost care, balancing individual justice with collective responsibility”.
Russia’s rowing federation said it would appeal.
Pavel Sozykin was the competitor banned by World Sailing, with the other 6 Russian sailors allowed to compete, and a replacement for Sozykin will be allowed.
“The ICF will continue its strong zero-tolerance stance and remove all athletes that contravene its rules in anyway”, said Simon Toulson, the International Canoe Federation’s general secretary.
McLaren reported last week that four positive doping tests in Russian fencing and four in triathlon had disappeared in recent years.
The banned 5 included Alexey Korovashkov, a 5-time world champion who won a bronze medal in London 4 years ago, and Alexander Dyachenko, who took gold in a doubles kayak sprint.
“This is a bitter blow for the Olympic movement and we are saddened that our sport is implicated”.
“We can’t accept indiscriminate disqualification of our athletes with an absolutely clean doping history”, Putin said.
Nenad Lalovic, the president of United World Wrestling, the global federation, said it had begun validating Russian wrestlers who have qualified for the Olympics.
In addition to the ban on Russia’s entire track and field team over doping, 7 swimmers, two weightlifters and a volleyballer have also been barred.
Yuliya Stepanova, the 800m runner whose evidence helped expose the Russian doping scandal, will not be allowed to do the same, however.
The vast majority of the Russian athletes who miss out are in track and field, where 67 athletes were ruled out when a ban on the Russian team was upheld at the Court of Arbitration for Sport last week.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko wrote to the IAAF on Monday to get the ban overturned.
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The ICF also said that Russian Federation would not be allowed to enter boats in four events in which the excluded athletes would have raced. On Thursday fans will have a chance to see off competitors during a ceremony at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.
