The International Olympic Committee threw Russia a lifeline on Sunday, ignoring calls for the national team to be banned over allegations of state-backed doping and giving international sports federations the final say on whether individual Russian athletes could compete in Brazil.
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“The 18 Russian shooters who have been entered…to participate in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games are neither mentioned in the McLaren Report nor have they tested positive further to a doping control according to the information we possess”, a statement said.
Dyachenko won gold in the men’s double kayak 200 meters at the 2012 Olympics in London.
“The ICF will continue its strong zero-tolerance stance and remove all athletes that contravene its rules in anyway”, said Simon Toulson, the International Canoe Federation’s general secretary.
It followed a damning report from the World Anti-Doping Agency, which accused Russian Federation of a state-sponsored doping regime. The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), in turn, banned Russian player Alexander Markin, who is suspected of using the illegal substance meldonium.
The International Rowing Federation made the decision to award a qualification place to Australia on Tuesday night.
Putin, who has warned of a split in the Olympic movement and what Russian officials call creeping political interference in sport, will address the Russian team tomorrow after an earlier scheduled meeting was postponed due to the doping scandal, Russian news agencies cited the Kremlin as saying.
However, Efimova’s agent Andrei Mitkov said she would appeal her ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
“The intention to defend the athletes is there”, she told R-Sport.
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Although the Russian athletics federation and its athletes have been banned from global competition by the worldwide Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the governing body had cleared Stepanova for a return to racing.
