The eight competition spots have been offered to other countries.
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On Wednesday, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) upheld the ban on 67 Russian track and field athletes for systematic state-sponsored doping, ending any hopes they had of competing at next month’s Rio Games. Apart from that, the International Olympic Committee ruled than no Russian athlete who has ever been sanctioned for doping will be allowed to take part in the Rio Olympics, even if he or she has served the sanction.
Russian Federation is confident that most of its Olympic team will be able to compete in Rio de Janeiro, but its efforts to reinstate banned athletes are a mixed bag.
But there was a surprise as wrestling excluded just one Russian, despite the sport being shown to have had 28 tests manipulated as drug-taking was covered up on an unprecedented scale. For the women, Albania, Georgia and Moldova became eligible.
In doing so, the federation pointed to the multiple cases of doping by the country’s weightlifters. Each global sport federation will have to individually review each athlete’s application to compete in Rio and the findings must be upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest appeals court in athletic circles. “They’re training and they’re ready to go”.
However, Russia’s best-known track and field athlete, two-time Olympic gold medalist Yelena Isinbayeva, said she had been refused in her last attempt to make the team for Rio following the blanket ban on Russia in that sport.
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China issued a safety warning Friday to Chinese visiting Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics following a spate of thefts and armed robberies committed against its athletes, officials, members of the media and others.
