IOC President Thomas Bach announced on Sunday that Russian athletes, with the exception of field and track competitors, were allowed to participate in the 2016 Summer Olympics based on individual approval of each respective global sports federation or association.
Advertisement
Several athletes denied the meet was meant as a protest against their suspension from Rio.
The IWF’s move came after the International Olympic Committee declined to issue a blanket ban to all Russian athletes last week, instead leaving it up to the various international federations overseeing each sport to make their own determinations.
“The hurdles that those Russian athletes who have been cleared to compete, the hurdles that they had to jump to be here are very strict and very high”.
At the US training camp on Friday, Felix said she doesn’t think she’ll ever get past the disappointment of not getting to go for the 200-400 double, but she’s focused on the task at hand. The boxing coach Alexander Lebzyak even said they were “heading off to war”. “Today we can show what we were striving for these past four years”. He says it’ll be a case of “let’s go for this Olympics, maybe not as successful as it could have been, but the next one we’ll be back and we’ll be running the same system”. “The (Russian) decision has been made, there is nothing we can do about it”, Chiller added. Winners were awarded 100,000 roubles (£1,140), second place was worth 50,000 roubles and third place earned 30,000 roubles.
Mutko remained on the field after the prize ceremony and spent almost an hour taking questions from athletes, many of whom appeared to be troubled about the future of their sport.
Late last month the IAAF announced that it had amended the organisation’s regulations in order to allow field and track athletes from Russian Federation to submit individual applications for worldwide tournaments.
The IOC’s chief ethics and compliance officer, Paquerette Girard Zappelli, says “we will rely on the Brazilian authorities and their jurisdiction for criminal and security matters”. “The team in weightlifting is going to be small, probably of three athletes”, he said.
In a statement the UCI said it was satisfied the 11 riders it had cleared had fulfilled the criteria laid down by the International Olympic Committee on Sunday.
Zhukov also announced an independent anti-doping commission had been set up to collaborate with McLaren as he continues his report. This follows a previous report by the same agency documenting rampant doping among Russia’s track and field athletes.
Advertisement
“Maybe the Olympics is still in my future”, she tells CNN.
