On Thursday cycling’s governing body, the UCI, became the latest worldwide federation to declare on Russian athletes’ eligibility for Rio, approving 11 cyclists but rejecting six others – three for previous bans and three because they were named as being on a list of “protected athletes” in the McLaren report.
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In a statement, the UCI says after a “thorough analysis of the testing history” of another 11 riders it believes they have met the eligibility requirements set by the International Olympic Committee for Russians to compete in Rio.
But 16 of Russia’s 17 wrestlers were approved after the sport’s governing body, United World Wrestling, completed the process of assessing each Russian athlete’s anti-doping record – as all federations are required to do after the International Olympic Committee declined to impose a blanket ban for the state-directed doping programme uncovered by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren’s investigation. But the departure was postponed until the IOC’s decision following the McLaren report, which found evidence of state-sponsored doping programs. It said one competitor, Viktor Lebedev, should not take part in Rio because he had a positive doping test in 2006.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has included four Russian players in the draws, “pending the validation of the International Olympic Committee”. The BWF held the draws for the Rio Games on Tuesday and included Vladimir Malkov and Natalia Perminova in the men’s and women’s singles as well as the men’s doubles partnership of Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov.
Seven more Russian competitors were ruled out of the Olympics on Thursday even as 27 were cleared to take the nation’s team beyond 200.
Russia’s national Olympic team has arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Friday to participate in the Olympic Games, which will begin on August 5. “Time will show those people who suspended us”.
Rio spokesman Mario Andrada says “we haven’t seen enough to say it was organized sabotage” but he acknowledges a few unhappy workers could have caused problems.
“All the athletes who will go to Rio or are already there won’t be broken”, she said, adding that Russians would compete in Rio “to spite everyone” and “rattle the world” with their performances.
“We anxiously waited for this day, we anxious”.
Some Russian competitors are already in Brazil acclimatising to the conditions but it remains unclear how numerous 387-strong squad Moscow named last week will eventually compete.
No track and field athletes were among the contingent heading for Rio, since the entire track team is banned from competing, except for a single US -based long jumper, following revelations of widespread doping.
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Isinbayeva corrected reports on Thursday suggesting she might be the Russian team’s flag bearer in Rio, despite not being able to compete. “Voleyball player Sergei Tetyukhin, who is a great sportsman and an Olympic champion, will be given the honour”, Isinbayeva wrote on her Instagram page. The entire lifting team risks being banned from the Rio Games because of the large number of failures in retests from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
