Russian Federation is confident that most of its Olympic team will be able to compete in Rio de Janeiro, but its efforts to reinstate banned athletes are a mixed bag.
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London Olympics bronze medallist Vladimir Morozov became the first to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against an IOC order to global federations to exclude athletes named in a report alleging state-run doping in Russia.
With the Rio Games set to start on August 5, we will bring you all the latest news from the global sporting showpiece.
Meanwhile, the IOC has said a three-member IOC panel will have the final say on which Russian athletes can compete at the Rio Games, reviewing all decisions taken by the worldwide federations.
Aside from athletics, where all bar Florida-based Darya Klishina has been banned from competing at Rio, weightlifting is the only other sport to exclude all Russians after each individual governing body was asked to make a call on a sport-by-sport basis.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will hold swiftly convened hearings in Rio to decide on the appeals by the two, both medal winners for Russian Federation at past Olympics. The Russian has won two gold medals at the Olympic Games when she successfully defended her medal in pole vaulting at 2008 Beijing which she had first won at Athens 2004.
The International Weightlifting Federation said the “integrity of the weightlifting sport has been seriously damaged on multiple times and levels by the Russians”.
Stepanova’s hopes of running at the Olympics, which start next week, as an independent athlete where dashed when the International Olympic Committee ruled earlier this month that no Russian with a doping background could take part.
Russians hoping to compete in the boxing, golf, gymnastics, handball and taekwondo are still waiting to hear from the respective federations on whether they will be banned or not.
Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said on Saturday that he still expects atleast 266 athletes to compete.
Lobintsev and USA -based Morozov, were part of Russia’s bronze-medal winning 4x100m freestyle team at London 2012, while Lobintsev also won a silver medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay at Beijing 2008.
“Both swimmers request CAS to declare the decision of the International Olympic Committee executive board of July 24 2016 invalid and unenforceable”, said a CAS statement. “We should do so after the Olympic Games”.
Believe it or not, but Russia’s entire weightlifting team banned from Rio Olympics 2016.
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“During those three months, people intruded into the apartments and a lot of things were stolen”, he told O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper.
