Nikita Lobintsev, left, and Vladimir Morozov pose with their silver medals after helping Russian Federation to second place in the 800-meter freestyle relay at the 2015 world championships.
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The duo, who have never failed a doping test, want the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to overturn the decision made by FINA to ban them after their names appeared in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-led McLaren report into doping in Russian Federation.
For Morozov and Lobintsev, the CAS announced that a hearing for the two will be the first of the temporary court set up in Rio de Janeiro for the objective of quickly reviewing disputes that arrive at the Olympic Games.
Global swimming federation (FINA) general secretary Cornel Marcelescu confirmed Efimova’s appeal to AFP.
A report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren for the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) said Russia’s doping had been organised by the sports ministry and aided by the Russian secret service at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
As part of the condition of Russian Federation being allowed to compete at Rio 2016, it was agreed that athletes who had previously tested positive for banned drugs and were linked to the McLaren Report would not be selected.
So far, at least 117 individuals from the 387 that the Russian Olympic Committee wanted to enter have been excluded. All global federations have made their minds and went through the list of athletes, made a decision…
“Such paragraph sets out the new criteria for the admission of Russian athletes at the Olympic Games in Rio”.
Morozov, who is based in the USA, posted a message on his Facebook page to FINA president Julio Maglione earlier this week, saying he had never failed a drug test taken by Russian or worldwide officials.
It has been revealed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), however, that Lobintsev had tested positive for the banned heart attack drug meldonium last month.
Morozov is a bronze medalist of the London Olympic Games.
“Both swimmers request CAS to declare the decision of the IOC Executive Board of 24 July 2016 (paragraph 2) invalid and unenforceable”, CAS said in a statement.
It is to that latter competition, a home Universiade, that focus has turned in relation to “disappeared” tests., though WADA has not published the details of cases such as those of Morozov and Lobintsev that are believed to have been sent by those at FINA who chose to impose a Rio ban.
Stepanov, who with his 800m runner wife Yuliya Stepanova, gave details of the state-run doping programme to a German documentary released in 2014, said efforts to clean up sport had failed.
Russian doping whistleblower Vitaly Stepanov said that the Rio Olympics “will not be clean” and blasted the International Olympic Committee for not banning Russia. The breaststroke specialist has already been spotted in Rio, one coach believing that she had an accreditation round her neck.
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The IOC said the Russian team will be finalised before Friday’s opening ceremony at the Rio Olympic stadium.
