Rio de Janeiro: The International Olympic Committee eased a ban on Russian athletes competing in the Rio Games as the Court of Arbitration for Sport said on Wednesday it was wrestling with a record number of appeals.
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The ruling on the eve of the games starting August 5 came as the Olympic committee announced that 271 of Russia’s 389 Olympic athletes were cleared to participate, including all 20 Russian gymnasts.
The Review Panel subsequently reviewed the positon of the independent arbitrator appointed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in relation to the evidence provided to meet those criteria.
According to statements from Russian Olympics Committee president Alexander Zhukov, 271 out of the 387-person Russian contingent for the Rio Olympics have been cleared to compete.
“On top of all that, Russian athletes are going through additional testing which is taking place at the Olympic Village”.
Bach, reiterating the main points aired in the International Olympic Committee session on Wednesday said the addition of the new sports “adds a lot to the overall picture” of the 2020 Games, reflecting three major trends. Those athletes are from Russian national teams of volleyball, handball, boxing, table tennis, synchronised swimming and equestrian.
Russia’s track and field team was suspended in separate action by the sport’s governing body, the IAAF, following similar revelations of state-backed doping a year ago. AP material published by LongIsland.com, is done so with explicit permission. The IOC allowed long jumper Darya Klishina to compete as a “neutral”.
CAS has registered 18 cases appealing the IOC’s decision on Russian athlete eligibility.
“Athletes such as Yelena Isinbayeva… are absolutely clean”, he said.
Some athletes, including swimmer Yulia Efimova, are appealing the IOC’s decision to bar any Russians who have served a ban for doping from competing.
CAS says the rule “does not respect the athletes’ right of natural justice”. He criticized the IOC’s decision not to ban Russian Federation, saying that WADA’s delay in pursuing the leads has been criticized for creating a time-crunch for the IOC’s decision within two weeks of the Olympics. That rule does not apply to athletes from other countries. “I think this is absolutely unfair”.
The IOC’s president, Thomas Bach, has described a blanket ban on Russian Federation as a “nuclear option” and said that the “collateral damage” of banning innocent athletes is “not what the Olympic movement stands for”.
The Wimbledon champion plays 35th-ranked Viktor Troicki in the first round in the 64-player draw, which was announced Thursday.
There is also the very real possibility that McLaren will uncover more wrongdoing as his investigation continues, and more Russians will be caught in the remaining waves of retests from the last two Olympics.
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The team boarded a Delta Air Lines jet from Atlanta on Thursday morning and arrived in the jungle city of Manaus about six hours before its game against Japan.
