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Russian weight-lifters barred from Olympic Games

Stepanov had given details of the state-run doping programme in Russian Federation.

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Rio de Janeiro: Russian doping whistleblower Vitaly Stepanov has told a Brazilian newspaper that the Rio Olympics “will not be clean” and blasted the International Olympic Committee for not banning Russia.

The IOC’s ruling executive board, meeting Saturday for the final time before the opening of the games next Friday, said the panel will decide on the entry of Russian athletes whose names have been forwarded to compete by their worldwide sports federations and approved by an independent arbitrator.

Any Russian who has served a doping suspension is automatically ruled out but others were also to be banned if they could not effectively “prove themselves clean”.

Yesterday, it noted that Russian competitors had been named in the McLaren Report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency that exposed evidence of state-backed cheating in Russia.

The panel will examine every case in which a Russian has been cleared to play through a process that includes the global federation governing his or her sport and an worldwide arbitrator.

Neither swimmer has ever served a ban for a positive test, and both have repeatedly said they are clean athletes.

They were among seven Russians banned by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) last week after the order was published.

Morozov, a member of the 4x100m freestyle relay team that took bronze at the 2012 London Games, and Lobintsev, who took silver in the 4x200m freestyle team in Beijing in 2008 and bronze in the 4x100m freestyle in London, have taken their action against the International Olympic Committee and FINA.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will hold swiftly convened hearings in Rio to decide on the appeals by the two, both medal winners for Russian Federation at past Olympics.

The Russians banned so far include the 67 track and field athletes barred as a whole by the IAAF, and more than 30 others rejected under new International Olympic Committee eligibility criteria.

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Instead, Olympic leaders asked the federations to adjudicate each case individually under strict guidelines.

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