MOSCOW (AP) – A much-depleted Russian team has departed for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, missing dozens of athletes who were excluded amid the country’s doping scandal.
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Yelena Isinbayeva, world-record holder in the pole vault who is among the track and field athletes barred from the Games, could not hide her tears in her speech that followed Putin’s.
Russian competitors are set to jet out to Brazil early Thursday but it still remains unclear how numerous 387-strong squad named last week will eventually compete.
They were searching for a way not to throw Russia out of the Olympics – and they found one, dumping the decision on the individual sports and banning a Russian whistleblower while also inviting her to Rio as a special guest. “We can not and will not accept what in fact is pure discrimination”.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has included four Russian players in the draws for Rio Games, “pending the validation of the International Olympic Committee”.
The Kenyan team for the Rio Olympics consisting of over 60 athletes will pass the anti-doping tests without any problem, the country’s Olympic boss said.
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.
“The UCI is absolutely committed to protecting the rights of clean athletes at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and beyond”, the UCI statement concluded.
“Not only have our athletes who never faced any specific accusations been hurt – this is a blow to the entire global sports and the Olympic Games”.
There was positive news, however, from Putin’s ally, Alisher Usmanov, the Russian billionaire who is president of the International Fencing Federation.
Zhukov said that less than 100 Russian competitors were still waiting to find out their fates and that the final makeup of the team should be announced over the weekend just a few days before the start of the Games.
One of the Russian rowers in the women’s eights – Anastasia Karabelshchikova – had served a previous doping ban.
Canadian Olympian Catriona Le May Doan noted that some of her Twitter followers say they are giving up on sport in disgust at the IOC’s cop-out. Nevertheless, they are allowed to compete, but Russians are not, even if their disqualification ended a long time ago.
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Stepanova says while she feels sorry for her fellow Russian athletes – that they were born into this system – she can’t understand why they have remained silent.
