Despite widespread evidence of state-sponsored doping over a period of four years, in research provided by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee ruled that Russian athletes be allowed to attend the games after a sketchy period where the decision hung in the balance.
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The ICF said the banned five were being hit with “an immediate suspension pending further investigation making the offending athletes ineligible to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games”.
Archery was not implicated in the World Anti-Doping Agency report released last week by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, which accused Russian Federation of covering up doping in 20 summer Olympic sports.
Russia’s track and field athletes, already barred from the games over the doping scandal, are not affected by the International Olympic Committee ruling and, with the possible exception of one athlete based in the United States, will not be competing.
Worldwide federations in canoeing, sailing and modern pentathlon ruled out eight on Tuesday, including an Olympic gold medalist.
The Lausanne, Switzerland based CAS was not immediately available to comment on when an appeal would be heard, but the court and federations appear likely face a race against the clock to manage a flurry of Russia doping cases before the opening ceremony.
“As a result of this work conclusions will be drawn about the composition (of the Russian team)”. But given that the International Track and Field Federation (IAAF) had already made the decision to ban the whole Russian track and field team, a decision that the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled was appropriate for the federation to make, perhaps it made sense to continue to defer the decision to the federations.
FINA said three more swimmers were identified by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren when he examined evidence that Russian government officials ordered the cover-up of hundreds of doping tests.
The banned five included Alexey Korovashkov, a five-time world champion who won a bronze medal in London four years ago, and Alexander Dyachenko, who took gold in a doubles kayak sprint. “If you step out of line you won’t make the start line”.
The ICF also said that Russian Federation would not be allowed to enter boats in four events in which the excluded athletes would have raced. Austria, Germany, Sweden and Iran are in line to receive places instead.
World Sailing said Pavel Sozykin, who had been due to race in the 470 class, would be excluded because he was mentioned in the McLaren report.
The archery federation said Monday it had approved the entry of three Russian archers after determining they have no links to doping.
Meanwhile, the International Modern Pentathlon Union named the two Russians it had suspended as Maxim Kustov and Ilya Frolov, saying they both featured in the McLaren report.
Riga’s Jenn Suhr, the defending Olympic gold medalist in the woman’s pole vault who qualified for Rio by winning the U.S. Trials, has expressed her desire to compete against the best and hoped that her rival would be in Rio to make it a “true event”.
The IOC announced last week that all Russian athletes with previous doping offences will not be permitted to participate in Rio and Hickey says the McLaren report absolves the Russian Olympic Committee of any wrongdoing.
In the immediate future, it’s up to each country’s sport federations to clean up the mess.
Zhukov said 13 members of Russia’s Olympic team had a doping history, according to the R-Sport news agency.
There are some athletes who do not meet the (doping) criteria of the International Olympic Committee.
Russian Federation was high on the list but also near the top were Italy (123 infractions), India (96 infractions), Belgium and France (each with 91 infractions).
JUDO – The International Judo Federation, which lists Russian President Vladimir Putin as its honorary president, has given the green light for the 11 Russian judo competitors to take part.
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The couple who blew the whistle on doping in Russian sport fear drug cheats will still compete at the Rio Games under the country’s flag.
