The global governing body for athletics on Wednesday stood behind its ban on Russia’s track and field athletes competing at the Rio Olympics, effectively leaving all avenues explored in Moscow’s attempts to get the team readmitted.
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A statement from UWW’s special commission said: “Sixteen of the 17 Russian wrestlers entered to compete at the Olympic Games are cleared to be considered for acceptance by the International Olympic Committee/Court of Arbitration for Sport”.
“We’re after medals, that’s it”, handball player Anna Sen said as she prepared to board the flight.
“Earlier on Thursday, a statement from the sport’s world governing body the FIG said: “(We have) fully adhered to the criteria and process mandated by the International Olympic Committee for establishing a pool of eligible Russian athletes in gymnastics for the Rio Games.
A leave-taking ceremony for a section of the Russian Olympic team was held early on Thursday at Moscows Sheremetyevo airport here before they left for Rio de Janeiro.
Some 70 Russian competitors from the country’s depleted Olympics team flew out from Moscow for Rio on Thursday as sports federations whittled down the number of athletes allowed to take part.
She added that she plans to file another appeal to CAS and also the European Court of Human Rights.
Meanwhile, Rio’s top security official vowed to review security for the Olympic torch after rioting protesters blocked the relay ceremony and apparently extinguished the flame.
However, the International Olympic Committee then introduced a ban on any Russian athletes with a history of doping, and she was out again.
Fifty-three of the 67 Russian track and field athletes banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) over evidence of state-sponsored doping convened for the event, where they called for perseverance and defiance of international athletics authorities. These rulings must still be ratified by CAS. Nevertheless, the court dismissed her appeal along with that of 66 other athletes on July 21, as they did not meet the stringent eligibility criteria, with one of them involving being regularly checked by doping officers outside Russian Federation.
Russia’s weightlifting team has been dogged by doping cases and faced further embarrassment Wednesday when retests of samples from the 2012 Olympics saw four Russians, including three medalists, test positive.
“It is to convince ourselves that we are in fantastic shape and that we would have been ready to fight for the Motherland (in Rio)”.
An investigation launched by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in May resulted in the publication of a report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren on July 18.
Russia’s men’s quadruple sculls crew were banned from Rio after one of their members, Sergej Fedorovtsev, failed a doping test in May.
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“I heard that there are many problems, like in the bathroom without hot water, or toilets that do not flush”, said Taku Murakami, a member of the Japanese gymnastics team.
