The IAAF, world athletics’ governing body, banned the Russian team last month and today that decision was rubber-stamped by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
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An appeals court is set to rule on the ban imposed on Russia’s track and field athletes for next month’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Its executive board is holding its second emergency meeting of the week on Sunday and has promised to make a final decision about a complete ban for the Russian team by Wednesday.
Announcing what it calls a unanimous decision, the CAS said it had rejected both a request for arbitration filed by the Russian Olympic Committee and 68 athletes, along with an appeal that was filed by 67 of the same athletes who had been declared ineligible for the Olympic Games in Rio when their country’s sporting federation was suspended.
In November 2015, the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) suspended the All Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF) from its membership, thus depriving Russian track and field athletes from participating in the 2016 Olympics.
Four-time Olympic medalist, London Olympics Organising Committee Chairman and IAAF president Sebastian Coe however expressed a muted welcome saying “this is not a day for triumphant statements”.
Two athletes – Yulia Stepanova, an 800-meter runner and key whistleblower in exposing Russian doping, and Florida-based long jumper Darya Klishina – are the only ones who have received IAAF eligibility.
The International Olympics Committee President, Thomas Bach, said that the athletes represent a “symbol of hope” for migrants and refugees around the world.
FINA also came out on the front foot this week to condemn “premature” calls for Russian Federation to receive a blanket ban from the Olympics.
“For me I will feel so proud to be there and to be recognised as a South Sudanese because I believe most of the world champions have never been there”, Angelina Ndai, a South Sudanese refugee athlete said.
The IAAF welcomed the decision saying that the ruling “has created a level playing field for athletes”, reported AFP.
CAS said the rule, adopted on June 17, “left practically no possibility for the athletes to comply with the criteria”.
In extending the ban, the IAAF said Russia’s entire drug-testing system had been corrupted and tainted and there was no way to prove which athletes were clean. That response comes after a three-member Court of Arbitration for Sport judging panel upheld the IAAF’s right to ban the Russian track and field federation and its athletes from global competition, including the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
But the court said its reasons should be “issued as soon as possible”. “It is our federation’s instinctive desire to include, not exclude”.
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The IOC are expected to decide on the Russian team’s participation in Rio by this weekend at the latest, less than two weeks before the Olympic opening ceremony.
