CCTV’s Julia Lyubova reports from Moscow.
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The world governing body’s ruling 15-member executive board met on Sunday via teleconference and decided that responsibility for ruling on the eligibility of Russians remains with the worldwide federations.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist and two-time Olympian Moss Burmester has encouraged all athletes to take a stand against the International Olympic Committee’s decision to not put a blanket ban on Russian Federation for the Rio Olympics.
WADA had recommended for all Russian athletes to be banned after a report led by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren revealed evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping by the country during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Every human being is entitled to individual justice.
“An athlete should not suffer and should not be sanctioned for a system in which he was not implicated”, Bach told reporters on a conference call after Sunday’s meeting.
The 42-year-old posted on her Twitter account: “Such a disappointing decision by the IOC”.
“This is not about expectations”, he said.
Only athletes who pass “reliable adequate global tests” will compete, and Russian tests were deemed invalid, according to the statement. While the IOC expressed its gratitude to Stepanova, it said that she doped as well, so the circumstances “do not satisfy the ethical requirements for an athlete to enter the Olympic Games”.
A similar rule by the British Olympic Association to ban the nation’s drugs cheats from Olympic participation for life was also rejected by CAS ahead of the 2012 London Games, allowing sprinter Dwain Chambers to race.
Welshman Davies, Olympic long jump champion at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics supported the IAAF’s decision to ban Russia’s athletics team.
“In general, we are very grateful to the International Olympic Committee for today’s decision”, Mutko said, adding that he believes it was “taken in the interests of the unity of world sport and the unity of the Olympic family”.
The IOC likes to preach the importance of fair play and how it prizes clean competition.
But the country’s national anti-doping agency was scathing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned that the affair could split the Olympic movement, bringing echoes of the 1980s.
“I just want our athletes to stay focused, urging them to concentrate on their own performance, wipe Russian Federation from their mind”.
“I can not imagine an Olympic Games without Russian Federation, it is not possible”. And former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev wrote an open letter to Bach on Friday to plead against a blanket ban.
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Instead, the chef de mission said Australia’s athletes had to move on and accept that any Russian competitors are clean heading into next month’s Olympics.
