A week later, the International Olympic Committee chose to have the sports federations rule on who could compete in Rio based on McLaren’s evidence and special criteria, such as not nominating any Russian with a previous sanction.
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International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach made an appeal for unity in a troubled world Friday as the opening ceremony for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games got under way.
Some in the global sports community had called for the entire Russian team to be banned as punishment.
Instead, the IOC asked global federations to examine each individual Russian athlete to determine whether they should be eligible to compete.
The chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee defended his support of the decision not to ban Russia’s entire team from the Rio Games, framing it as a done deal by the time he weighed in on it, and a stance that received wide support among athletes.
Only one athlete from each sport can be elected, though, and Isinbayeva is one of five from track and field on the list, four of whom are former Olympic champions.
Several worldwide federations announced separately that they had received final approval for Russian entries, including boxing, judo, equestrian, volleyball, golf and gymnastics.
Russia’s track and field team had already been suspended in separate action by the sport’s governing body, the IAAF, following similar revelations of state-backed doping a year ago. With 271 athletes from Russian Federation being cleared, they are considered as the “cleanest” delegation and well represented in all of the games.
Gymnastics training – Rio Olympic Arena – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 04/08/2016.
Russia’s depleted team will comprise about 70 percent of the 387-strong squad originally named for the Games.
Irish boxer O’Reilly became the first athlete at the competition to fail a drugs test, it was announced on Thursday.
Russian Olympic gold medal-winners said the team had been galvanised by the fall-out of revelations of state-orchestrated doping on a grand scale.
Russian Federation was supposed to send a strong 387 athlete delegation to the games, but for now, only 271 passed their drug test.
It said federations should not allow Russians to compete if there could be any doubt about their doping record – and that any athletes previously sanctioned should not be in Rio.
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The IOC has also cleared other Russian swimmers – Yuliya Yefimova and Natalya Lovtsova, Darya Ustinova, Mikhail Dovganyuk, and Anastasia Krapivina – for taking part in the Olympics.
