Earlier this month, IAAF’s anti-doping department rejected personal applications from all Russian athletes to participate in global competitions, including the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, except for long jumper, Darya Klishina.
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World Rowing’s approval process left just six rowers eligible to compete for Rio, meaning Russian Federation could only compete in one event, the men’s four, and meant reserve crews from around the world have rushed to Brazil to compete.
The country had earlier been expecting nearly three-quarters of its Olympic team to go to Rio, with the Russian Sports Ministry producing a report claiming 286 members of what had been an nearly 400-strong team would be there.
Meanwhile, Russia have said they will launch a legal bid to reinstate 19 of the country’s rowers who were banned from Rio because of insufficient drug testing. “All athletes and staff were evacuated and are fine”, the team said in a Tweet.
Stepanova’s hopes of running at the Olympics, which start next week, as an independent athlete where dashed when the International Olympic Committee ruled earlier this month that no Russian with a doping background could take part.
The Stars 2016 Tournament will feature over 100 athletes, including multiple world and Olympic champions.
Russia’s best-known track and field athlete, Yelena Isinbayeva, has failed in a last-ditch attempt to compete at the Rio Olympics. Boxing, golf, gymnastics and taekwondo federations have yet to report their decisions.
The advert told participants to come in Russian team kit, “wave flags and smile”.
Anyone implicated in McLaren’s report would also be excluded, the International Olympic Committee said.
The panel will receive independent advice from the Court of Arbitration for Sport before making its decisions.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) banned all eight Russian contenders – five men and three women – entered for Rio.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) acted on the recommendation of WADA and chose to ban Russia from competition in any international events.
The IFs were left to decide on athletes’ eligibility after the International Olympic Committee decided against imposing a blanket ban on Russian Federation following the McLaren Report into state-run doping in the country.
“It has always been the case in the Olympics”.
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Terekhov says he received a letter from the WTF and that “we were told that all three of our athletes have officially been admitted to compete in the Olympic Games”.
