“We will analyse each line and proceed legally against it”, Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said yesterday on Russian sports television channel Match TV.
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Stepanova, who had herself been banned in the past for doping, was refused a spot, despite being proposed to compete as a neutral athlete by the ruling body of global athletics the IAAF, along with any Russian athlete with past doping sanctions.
That fact will only be reinforced when the opening ceremony kicks off this Saturday morning, and the overwhelming majority of the tainted Russian Olympic team still marches into Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium behind the Russian flag.
A three-strong International Olympic Committee will have the final say on Russian competitors’ eligibility for this summer’s Rio Games.
Bach said he had no contact with the Moscow government after this month’s publication of an explosive report which revealed a wide-ranging, state-sponsored doping regime.
But the IOC’s executive board, which met over the weekend, has chose to empower a new task force to issue a final decision. He thinks it will be great Games.
Russian Federation also faces a possible ban from the Paralympic Games.
Olympics boss Thomas Bach rejected claims he was personally influenced by Russia on Sunday after strong criticism over the decision to let Russian athletes compete at the Rio Games. The IOC Executive Committee decided not to ban the Russian team.
Never has a country been kicked out of the Olympics for doping violations.
In the lawsuit, WSF portrays itself as the world leader in producing skateboarding events and a key player in the movement to bring the sport to the Olympics.
Athletes from other nations will get a chance to compete at Rio as a result, including Australia’s women’s eight rowing team.
Efimova, who won a 200m breaststroke bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics, follows Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev in taking her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Now solved, said Bach.
The move goes against the recommendations of World Anti-doping Agency (WADA). “The hesitation makes it looks worse and worse”.
The evidence published so far by McLaren was “shocking”, Bach said.
A WADA spokesperson said ISF is in compliance with the agency’s rules.
“We need to resolve the situation before the Games start and then, afterwards, we will have more time to analyse the situation and study it with a certain distance”.
Australian Olympic team members were forced to evacuate their lodgings on Friday at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics after a small fire in a basement parking area caused smoke to fill the stairwells.
“I’m not here to defend Russia”, Lalovic said.
All Russian athletes sanctioned for doping in the past have been barred from the Games.
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Divisions in the International Olympic Committee about how to deal with Russia’s doping controversy?
