“We can’t accept indiscriminate disqualification of our athletes with an absolutely clean doping history”, Putin said at a Kremlin ceremony to send off cleared athletes. “We can not and will not accept what in fact is pure discrimination”.
Advertisement
The tennis chief said that the politicized calls for bans on Russian athletes will only motivate Russian sportspeople to win more medals in Rio. This follows a previous report by the same agency documenting rampant doping among Russia’s track and field athletes.
The IOC will launch its new Olympic Channel next month following the closing ceremony of the Rio Games.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko wrote to the IAAF on Monday to get the ban overturned. “Justice will certainly prevail!” the Russian president told the athletes.
A state-run doping program is obviously catastrophic for an even playing field in sports, but the International Olympic Committee’s refusal to really crack down on such a program undermines not only WADA, but the entire Olympics.
“It’s obvious that the absence of Russian competitors — leaders in many disciplines — markedly lowers, and will lower the intensity of the fight and that means the spectacle at the upcoming events”, Putin said in a speech.
But it was the near-blanket ban by the IAAF that most riled the Russian Federation president.
The IWF said in a statement that all 11 athletes, who include four Russians, have been provisionally suspended until their cases are closed.
Since the International Olympic Committee decision at the weekend, the number of Russian competitors allowed to take part has steadily decreased.
Around 135 athletes will compete at Stars 2016, a far cry from the 10,000-odd headed to Rio. She went on to implore her compatriots to “compete so the whole world shudders and the hymn of the Russian Federation sounded in the sports arenas of Rio without stopping”.
Isinbayeva, who won gold medals at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, had attended the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing last week when 68 athletes and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) saw their appeal against the suspension rejected.
Russia’s track and field athletes have been banned indefinitely by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) since November past year, however their situation came to a head when the Court of Arbitration for sport last week rejected an appeal which could have allowed them to compete at the Olympics.
“In consideration of the residents who wanted to watch the relay and the other torchbearers, the committee made a decision to restart the relay on the second leg of the route, after an evaluation by the security team”.
The IOC missed an opportunity to restore integrity to the Olympics.
Thomas Bach is confident of Rio de Janeiro hosting a “fantastic” Olympics this year.
“Tourists won’t be seeing a flawless city but one that is vastly better than it was in 2009 (when Rio launched its Olympic candidacy)”. The Australian delegation gave the mayor a tiny “boxing kangaroo” doll as the sign of a truce.
Banyana Banyana arrived in Rio on Sunday, 24 July – much earlier than most teams – to acclimatise to the conditions of the South American city, and head coach Vera Pauw believes it was a masterstroke. Problems here could make village problems seems small. “Kenya is sending to Brazil a clean team”, he said in Nairobi.
Advertisement
Paes apologized and acknowledged Australia’s “was the worst building”. “Australia was right, ” he said. That was a mistake of the organization. They showed me their apartment.
