Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Friday that, so far, 272 of the country’s athletes had been cleared by global federations, out of an original team of 387.
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The main squad of Russia’s national team is on its way to Rio de Janeiro to take part in this year’s Olympic Games.
On June 17, the IAAF Council ruled it was still too early to restore ARAF’s (All-Russia Athletics Federation) membership, subsequently extending the suspension of Russian athletes from all global tournaments, including the 2016 Olympic Games.
Most federations have not excluded Russians on the basis of a lack of testing, but rowing and weightlifting are the exceptions.
The IWF said Friday the multiple cases of doping by Russian weightlifters have “seriously damaged” the integrity of the sport. The man implicated himself in state-sponsored doping in a damning report by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren also continued his policy of questioning its veracity.
“I do believe the IOC had a chance to destroy this system and to show that the Olympic movement will not tolerate this kind of cheating”, Stepanov told CNN via a Skype from the US, “but they chose not to do that”.
“This is our guideline as we must dispel all doubts for young athletes so that they continue practicing their sports”, the two-time Olympic champion added.
Controversy ignited on Wednesday over working conditions for labourers racing to fix shambolic conditions at the athletes’ Village in Rio just nine days before the Olympics.
This decision, made by the IWF Executive Board following a meeting, followed analysis of the McLaren Report, as well as the advice of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and re-analysis of Beijing 2008 and London 2012 samples.
“Russia’s team is the cleanest one at Rio”.
Russia’s team was originally 387-strong and yesterday a special tournament for the banned athletes – “Stars 2016” – was staged in Moscow.
“I heard that there are many problems, like in the bathroom without hot water, or toilets that do not flush”, said Taku Murakami, a member of the Japanese gymnastics team. “CAS works 24/7”, he said.
All of Russia’s weightlifters were banned from the Rio Olympics late on Friday for doping for what the global federation called “extremely shocking” results that brought the sport into “disrepute”.
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The IOC has taken fierce criticism for not ordering a blanket ban on Russian Federation after an independent report said there was state-organized doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
