Olympic officials announced Thursday that 271 Russian athletes would be allowed to compete in the Games – 118 fewer than the country hoped to enter – largely settling the question of Russia’s participation less than 24 hours before the opening ceremony.
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In response to evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia, the International Olympic Committee last month directed sports federations to allow Russian athletes to compete only if they met certain criteria, including a clean doping past.
She was ruled out of the Rio Games when the International Olympic Committee made a decision to ban any Russian who had served a doping ban.
The IOC had decided not to impose a blanket ban on Russian Federation after World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigator Richard McLaren revealed widespread and state-sponsored doping in the country in a special report from July 18.
The CAS ruling came in the cases of Russian rowers Anastasia Karabelshivo and Ivan Podshivalov, who both received two-year doping bans in 2008, and swimmer Yulia Efimova, a bronze medallist at the 2012 London Games who served a two-year ban from 2013-15.
Russian Federation has already suffered the indignity of its entire track and field team being banned over unconfirmed reports that some athletes took part in a second state-sponsored doping scheme.
Yuliya Stepanova, the Russian 800m runner who lifted the lid on systematic doping and corruption in Russian athletics, has decided not to launch a final appeal against her ban from competing in the Rio Olympics. Russian cyclist Ilnur Zakarin was cleared for the Rio Olympics but he will not participate as he had no possibility to prepare for the Games.
Those advocating a total ban on Russia’s participation in the Games are discouraged by the verdict, which many consider a feckless International Olympic Committee response to a cheating scam coordinated through Moscow.
But it’s still a victory for a nation that the independent World Anti-Doping Agency slammed for having what it called a state-sponsored doping program.
WADA called for a blanket ban on Russian athletes in Rio as a result but the International Olympic Committee initially opted to leave the decision up to the governing bodies of individual sports. The decision means athletes with past doping offenses could challenge their Rio bans, the BBC says.
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CAS sent their case back to the International Rowing Federation to decide on their eligibility “without delay”. No matter that this resulted from a system that put pressure on her to dope, and that she had the courage to speak out against it later, at tremendous risk to her career – and, in Vladimir Putin’s police state, her life.
