Russian “sports fans” were paid to cheer Russia’s Olympic team at a Moscow airport as they departed for Rio, the Gazeta.ru news website reported Friday.
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A separate campaign, launched by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Athletes’ Committee chair Beckie Scott, has raised almost CHF32,000 to help Yuliya and husband Vitaly Stepanov “rebuild their lives” in the United States.
And now, with about a week to go before the 2016 Summer Olympics get underway in Rio de Janeiro, the International Olympic Committee has announced Russia’s punishment: an ever-so-gentle slap on the wrist.
But McLaren’s report said there was state-organised doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other major global events in Russian Federation.
International Olympic Committee leaders on Saturday started talks dominated by fallout from the Russian doping crisis as a Russian swimmer appealed against his Rio Olympics ban just six days before the start of the Games.
“He thinks it’s going to be a great games”, Adams said.
A report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said there had been state-run doping, aided by the Russian secret service, at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
CAS has set up a base in Rio de Janeiro ahead of the Rio 2016 Games, and Russian swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev have become the first athletes to bring cases there.
“As of this morning I can say that we will represent 29 disciplines out of 34, with 266 people”, minister Vitaly Mutko said in an interview with sports channel Match-TV.
An appeal is being prepared against World Rowing’s decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Russian Rowing Federation head Veniamin But told The Associated Press. The investigation alleged that Russia’s intelligence agency, the FSB, helped athletes cheat.
Igor Kazikov told state-owned television channel on Friday that every member of the team who had arrived by Thursday has already been tested for doping at least once.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Friday that, so far, 272 of the country’s athletes had been cleared by global federations, out of an original team of 387.
The 800m runner’s testimony helped shed light on the scale of doping in Russian sport, and she was to compete under a neutral flag in Rio.
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“As of today there are seven confirmed AAFs (adverse analytical findings) for Russian weightlifters from the combined reanalysis process of London and Beijing, while the second wave of Beijing reanalysis is not yet in a stage when the names and countries involved can be publicly disclosed”.
