Members of Brazilian army stand guard near the Olympic Park as part of security operations for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 24, 2016.
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Rio de Janeiro – A riot during the Olympic torch relay cast a shadow over the Rio Games starting in just over a week Thursday, marking a new low in a ritual that had been meant to unite Brazil.
Russian President Vladimir Putin waves to Chinese children after a welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People on June 25, 2016 in Beijing, China.
On Sunday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held a meeting of its executive board to discuss a possible blanket ban of Russian athletes from the Rio Olympics.
As she prepared to depart, handball player Anna Sen vowed to “fight for those athletes who were disqualified”.
Volleyball player Sergei Tetyukhin, a four-time Olympic medalist, will be Russia’s flagbearer for the opening ceremony in Rio, according to an Instagram post by pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva.
That formed the basis for the first independent WADA report last November, which led to the current ban on Russian track and field athletes from competing internationally. “The changes that we had in the last few years are awesome”, he said adding that “so, now we start the party, the celebration and a great celebration of sports”.
“I recognised the problems that we found, I have come here to make a formal apology”.
“We will be seeking justice in courts of all instances, including [the European] Court of Human Rights [ECHR]”, she said.
The IWF said Wednesday in a statement that all 11 athletes, who include four Russians, have been provisionally suspended until their cases are closed.
Even worse, if companies do not have an official USOC sponsorship deal, they are also forbidden from referencing any Olympic event results or retweeting/reporting any content from the official Olympics accounts, or using images taken at the sporting event.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has said the withdrawals will be one of the factors taken into account when the roster of sports for the 2020 Games is confirmed next year.
Other sports, such as judo and tennis, have allowed the entire Russian team to compete in their sport. The disqualification was due to previous drug violations made by the athletes or among those included in the report of state-sponsored doping, as reported by The Guardian.
Some Russian athletes had flown to Rio in advance of the main delegation, including gymnasts and swimmers.
On Tuesday, the federation said that 17 entered rowers and two of the coxes did not meet conditions to take part but six Russian rowers were cleared for Rio.
A further three cyclists were withdrawn from the team by Russia’s Olympic committee because they have previously been sanctioned for doping.
Putin last week called for the creation of a new state-backed anti-doping commission to draw up future strategy.
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Speaking to CNN for the first time since their evidence came to light in 2014, Vitaly Stepanov, a former employee at the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA, and his wife, 800 meter runner Yulia Stepanova, said the International Olympic Committee missed a crucial opportunity to dismantle Russia’s doping culture.
