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International Olympic Committee decision banning Russian athletes from Rio unenforceable – CAS

Bach said all worldwide sports federations had to be informed before a final list could be released.

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Russian Federation vowed to win a hatful of medals and hit out at the expulsion of some of their top athletes on Thursday as they announced their smallest Olympic team in 104 years after a major doping scandal. Many began moving into the Olympic Village on Thursday.

Before IOC made their announcement, Zhukov estimated that between 270 and 280 Russian athletes, roughly 70 percent, would be cleared.

One of those concluded that the Russian Olympic Committee could not nominate athletes who had previously served doping bans.

The rulings raise new concerns over the validity of the IOC’s rejection of allowing the Russian whistle-blower Yuliya Stepanova to participate in Rio.

Russia have been banned from sending athletics and weightlifting teams entirely, while individual sporting federations must rule on whether Russians can compete. The U.S. team is the largest with 556 athletes.

The United States will be represented by 555 athletes in Rio, 25 more than in London 2012.

So, which sports are Russians banned from, and which are they allowed into?

CAS rejected the athletes’ appeal to be granted direct entry into the games, saying it was now up to the global rowing and swimming federations to decide whether to let them in or not.

Two-hundred and seventy-one Russian athletes will compete in Rio despite the release of the McLaren Report documenting widespread state-run doping practices.

Bach said that the declaration of athletes as being clean enough to compete allows the International Olympic Committee to send “a very clear message to the clean athletes, and particularly to the clean athletes in Russian Federation”.

The IOC Review Panel was tasked with reviewing the global federations’ decisions in relation to the entry of each individual athlete.

“I hope that he will not regret his decision about Russian athletes because as you can say, what goes around comes around”, Popov said of Coe earlier. “At no point did the International Olympic Committee, unlike the IAAF, demand publicly from the Russian sports authorities that they recognize our whistle-blowing as an important and valuable contribution for clean sport in Russia”.

The IOC’s choices in disciplining Russian Federation have been controversial, and are likely to fuel debate for months to come, as an overhaul of the anti-doping system is anticipated.

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“I believe it’s very unfair that such athletes like Yelena Isinbayeva and Sergei Shubenkov, without any doping history, absolutely clean, can not participate in the Olympics, however many athletes including American runners like for example (Justin) Gatlin and Tyson (Gay), who were punished for doping many times, will take part in these Olympics”, he said. The protracted and diffuse process made for a logistical nightmare for some competitors, like cyclist Ilnur Zakarin, who was pulled off his flight to Rio at the last minute after finding out he was banned.

Rio 2016 Olympics: Ban on Russian historical dopers 'unenforceable' - Cas