“However, the IOC EB would like to express its appreciation for Mrs Stepanova’s contribution to the fight against doping and to the integrity of sport”, the IOC Executive Board said.
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The IOC’s announcement means that Russian athletes “will be accepted by the IOC” in the Games if they are able to meet strict anti-doping rules, have no history of doping and have been given the go-ahead by their sporting federations.
The International Olympic Committee today decided against a blanket ban on Russian athletes for the Olympic Games that start in Rio on August 5th.
The minister went on to say that the decision to ban Russian athletes who has even been sanctioned for doping from the Rio 2016 Olympics is fair, reports Tass.
Calls for a blanket ban had intensified with Olympic skeleton racer and British IOC member Adam Pengilly saying: “The scale, leadership and co-ordination of a system like this is arguably the most heinous crime possible against the Olympic movement”.
“It has ignored the calls of clean athletes, a multitude of athlete organizations, and of leading National Anti-Doping Organisations, to do the right thing by excluding Russian Federation from the Rio Olympic Games”, he added. The International Association of Athletics Federations had originally approved her to compete under a neutral flag, but the IOC overturned that decision Sunday because she had been sanctioned for doping in the past.
According to Mutko, the Russian athletes of the national team would apply to IFs with renegotiations to be carried out quickly.
Three men and four women are due to compete for Russian Federation in the Olympic singles – Andrey Kuznetsov, Evgeny Donskoy, Teymurz Gabashvili, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Darya Kasatkina and Ekaterina Makarova. “The ROC’s (Russian Olympic Committee) commitment to ensuring Russia fields teams of clean athletes now and in the future is welcome”. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) this week rejected an appeal by 67 Russian athletes against IAAF ban.
Now the Russian paralympic athletes face a hearing over doping. Rather, the International Olympic Committee ruled, the athletes sports federations can determine eligibility on a case-by-case basis.
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The decision has been welcomed though by two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva, who has also been prevented from competing at Rio 2016 as part of the IAAF’s ban on the Russian track team.
