Fencers, triathletes and table tennis players became the latest team of Russians to be cleared to compete in the Olympics by the governing bodies of their sports ahead of the Moscow ceremony, but the IAAF rejected a bid by the bulk of the track and field team to be reinstated.
Advertisement
The worldwide federations governing modern pentathlon, canoeing, sailing, rowing and swimming have also blocked any Russian sportsperson mentioned by name in the WADA report from competing. Rowing added 19 more athletes to three that had previously been announced.
The tournament, given the super imaginative name “Stars 2016” (which, if you type into google, will provide you with a weird mix of results ranging from “Dancing With The Stars” to horoscope readings, and very little about athletic excellence) will take place this Thursday, Russian time, and will be held at Moscow’s Znamensky Brothers Stadium. Some appeals are likely.
The International Athletics Federation has already ruled that Russian track-and-field athletes will be unable to compete, declining the request of Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko to lift the ban on Wednesday.
Putin is to meet the team at the Kremlin before it receives a blessing from the head of the country s Orthodox Church.
Individual sports federations were given the task of deciding which athletes should be cleared to compete in Rio by the International Olympic Committee on Sunday.
More are falling foul of new rules imposed in the wake of the country’s doping scandal.
More than 100 Russians from the 387-strong Olympic team have been banned so far from going to Rio de Janeiro.
The IAAF decision comes after a report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren, alleging a doping cover-up at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.
Mutko, who was named in McLaren’s report for being involved in the cover-up of a footballer’s positive test, has been told to stay away from Rio by the International Olympic Committee but posed for selfies with members of the Russian team at the farewell event in Moscow. “If you step out of line you won’t make the start line”.
London 2012 bronze medal winning canoeist Alexey Korovashkov has also been barred, along with Andrei Kraitor, Elena Anyushina and Nataliya Podolskaya.
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.
The triathlon federation said none of its six Russian athletes was mentioned in McLaren’s report or has served a ban before, and all of them have been tested by non-Russian anti-doping agencies. Kustov’s place in the men’s event passes to a Latvian athlete, while Frolov had only been entered for Rio as a reserve.
Advertisement
In all there are now 22 Russian rowers who have been excluded from participation in Rio. The global volleyball federation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
