Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva will appeal the International Association of Athletics Federations’ (IAAF) decision to uphold a ban on Russian track and field athletes competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the European Court of Human Rights.
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But with less than two weeks remaining until the Opening Ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, the IOC’s executive board chose a more cautious approach. “This information and the decision of AIBA in respect of the athlete’s eligibility will be submitted to the International Olympic Committee for confirmation in due course”.
Dmitry Svishchev, who heads the lower house of Russian parliament’s sports and physical culture committee, told AFP the IOC decision was “not bad”.
The IOC on Sunday decided against enforcing a blanket ban from Rio 2016 for all Russian sportspeople.
Russia’s fencing and pentathlon federations have expressed confidence that athletes in their respective sports will also take part, but were still awaiting official confirmation from the respective federations.
The decision, announced after a three-hour meeting via teleconference of the IOC’s executive board, comes just 12 days before the opening of the Games on August 5.
The CAS decision will allow many past doping offenders from around the world, including top US runners Justin Gatlin and LaShawn Merritt, to compete in Rio.
Russian archers have been targeted for additional testing, both in and out of competition, since the report was released, the federation said.
It was Seppelt who the Stepanovs took their story to when their attempts to get WADA to investigate from 2010 onwards came to nothing.
Alexander Zhukov said: “We need literally in the next couple of hours and days to do this work with the global federations on each individual athlete”.
A list of strict criteria laid down by the IOC must be met, including “an individual analysis of each athlete’s anti-doping record, taking into account only reliable adequate worldwide tests”. Instead, the IOC left it to 27 worldwide sports federations to make the call on a case-by-case basis. “The vast majority of the results were negative”.
His comments echoed those of other senior officials who said they believed that common sense had prevailed over what they said looked like a witch hunt.
Still, the International Olympic Committee said Russians no longer benefit from a presumption of innocence and now face rigorous eligibility standards.
The IOC instead recognised Stepanova’s contribution to anti-doping by inviting her and her husband to attend the Games as guests.
“I think that in the near future we will have full information”, Alexander Zhukov told the Associated Press.
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Despite Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko being denied accreditation to accompany Team Russia to Rio because he is suspected of being involved in “state sponsored” doping, the Kremlin refused to comment on whether Putin will be going in his place to any of the events.
