Omega said it “won’t be commenting on the recent ruling; Omega serves as the official timekeeper for the Games and will continue to be at the service of all athletes attending” while GE said it “supports the IOC in the fight against doping, and we are fully committed to the spirit and intent of the Olympic Games”.
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Rodchenkov’s statement followed allegations from another former employee of the Russia Anti-Doping agency, Vitaliy Stepanova, who claimed in a German documentary that the Russian Olympic federation supplied banned substances to athletes in exchange for 5% of their earnings.
Instead, the International Olympic Committee left the decision in the hand of individual sports, which has so far seen more than 100 athletes banned from competing at Rio.
She was hoping to participate at the Rio Olympics as an “independent athlete”, but we know now she was refused that request.
A depleted Russian team departed for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, missing dozens of athletes who were excluded amid the country’s doping scandal.
Fighting back tears, Isinbayeva told Rio-bound Russian athletes: “Show them what you’re able to do – for yourself and for us too”.
Russia had a total of 387 Olympians competing in Rio, but a commission set up by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) uncovered a massive Russian doping scandal in 2015, resulting in team members getting banned.
The IAAF has already banned Russia’s athletics competitors for the Olympic Games next month, however the International Olympic Committee opted not to enforce a similar suspension across all sports.
Some global federations have banned Russians from competing altogether, some have issued a partial ban, while others have cleared all Russians to take part.
In a personal letter sent on Monday, Mutko said he agreed that the IAAF decision was “well-grounded and a effect of a serious crisis in the management of the All-Russian Athletics Federation, as well as a deep-rooted doping problem that goes back to the Soviet times”.
I mean, that’s what we’re going to do, because there’s not exactly an abundance of information about the competition, save for national team coach Yuriy Borzakovskiy saying that there will be a bunch of “less renowned athletes” competing alongside their better-known compatriots.
Putin said Russians were capable of transcending adversity.
Continuing his address, Putin told his audience “your colleagues from other sports powers realize that the value of their medals will be different”, because “this victory will have a different taste – or no taste at all”.
The Russian strongman was speaking to 49 competitors including track and field stars Yelena Isinbayeva and Sergey Shubenkov who will miss the Games.
The IAAF did just that with the exception of one Russian track and field athlete, Darya Klishina, who trains in the United States outside the Russian system. However, the track and field team as a whole was barred and lost an appeal.
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The IFF says 197 tests taken from Russian athletes in 35 countries over the last two years were all negative.
