Mutko on Tuesday denied all wrongdoing and said he expected his subordinates to be cleared.
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Bach said that on his arrival Thursday, he had gone straight to the athletes village “unshaven” to see the conditions where hundreds of plumbers have been working on water pipes following complaints from some teams. He was watched closely by his coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, and Spanish team coach Conchita Martinez. Ferrer said Nadal “looks very good”.
Meanwhile, the Rio De Janeiro state government on Monday announced that it will add 3,503 police officers to its force of 10,414 to guarantee security at the Olympic Games, a rise of 33 per cent.
Bach has said the International Olympic Committee is not responsible as it did not decide on the release of the McLaren report nor control the anti-doping laboratories that Russian authorities have been accused of manipulating.
WADA President Craig Reedie said that while the timing of the report was destabilizing, “it is obvious, given the seriousness of the revelations, that they had to be published and acted upon without delay”.
With just over two weeks until the opening ceremony, Russian Federation still doesn’t know whether its athletes – all or even some – will be competing in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “Our support for them is absolutely guaranteed”, Russian Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko was quoted as saying on Monday.
But he insisted the doping scandal would not taint Rio.
“Further to the International Olympic Committee’s criteria being outlined on 24 July, WADA has facilitated the transfer of relevant information that is available to date, concerning individual athletes, from the McLaren Investigation team to International Federations”, said Olivier Niggli, Director General, WADA. Organizers are blaming strong waves and poor design.
“Their cases will go directly to the CAS which will take independently all the necessary measures”, said Bach.
Bach said at the news conference following Saturday’s executive board meeting that the International Olympic Committee had worked hard to keep drug cheats away from the Olympics.
Ruggiero will replace Claudia Bokel, a former Olympic fencer from Germany whose four-year term is expiring at the end of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The last time Russian Federation was missing from the Olympics was when it boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Games in retaliation for the US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Los Angeles is competing against Paris, Rome and Budapest, Hungary.
The McLaren Report confirmed the accusations made by Rodchenkov, who claimed that up to 15 Russian Olympic medal winners at Sochi 2014 were implicated in a clandestine operation in which doping samples were switched for clean ones.
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The metro passes by Guanabara Bay, in the shadow of Rio’s iconic Sugarloaf Mountain where the sailing events will be held. Andrada says: “We could and should have done a little better”. But it does not remain a threat to the athletes.
