A Russian Federation flag (left) sits behind the Olympic rings in the Athletes Village ahead of the Rio Olympic Games, Brazil.
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A total of 271 Russian athletes have been cleared to take part in the Rio Olympics, Alexander Zhukov, president of the Russian Olympics Committee, told reporters in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.
The IOC had tried to ban cheats from the Games in 2011 with its own “Osaka rule” – a suspension from the next Olympics for anyone with a six-month doping ban or longer – but that was also thrown out by CAS at the time.
The IOC chose not to impose a blanket ban on all Russian athletes at a meeting in July, but directed sports federations to allow Russians to compete if they met a set of criteria, including a clean doping past and sufficient testing at global events.
It was later confirmed that 271 of the 389 athletes originally entered by the Russian National Olympic Committee (ROC) were cleared.
Bach again defended this IOC executive board’s decision not to ban the entire Russian Olympic team from the Rio Games. “The majority of the sports have been admitted in full”. They will be joined by eight Russian tennis players, 18 shooters, 11 judokas and Russian golfer Maria Verchenova, the sports’ worldwide federations said. The bans affected mostly the Russian track and field, rowing and weight lifting teams.
It’s not the first time CAS has struck down an International Olympic Committee anti-doping measure. He said his organization could not be blamed for the timing of the McLaren report, published just two weeks before the commencement of the Rio Games, or the fact that information previously offered to WADA was not followed up.
“For clean athletes, I think the situation in Rio is tough to watch”, said Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency. This is destroying justice. “We had to respect basic principles of natural law”.
Meanwhile, the men’s soccer competition got underway a day before the Gmanes’ official opening.
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In Group C, defending champion Mexico drew 2-2 with Germany despite twice having the lead in the northeastern city of Salvador.
