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International Olympic Committee to announce final ruling on eligibility of Russian athletes

Russian Federation will have 271 athletes competing at the Rio Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed on Thursday.

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CAS ruled that “unenforceable” on Thursday in the case of two Russian rowers but declined to obligate global federations and the IOC to allow them entry to the Games.

The IOC allowed most of the team to compete despite a recommendation of a total ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), after its investigators found evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov said Wednesday he expected between 272 and 280 Russian athletes would be cleared.

The IOC announced on Saturday that its panel, consisting of Ugur Erdener, the IOC’s medical commission chairman, Germany’s Claudia Bokel and fellow IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., would review the decisions by the individual sports federations over the eligibility of Russian athletes.

Months after Russia’s massive, brazen state-run doping program was uncovered, the International Olympic Committee made their final ruling tonight: 271 Russian athletes will compete at the Olympics.

But in a statement, she and her husband Vitaly, a former Russian anti-doping official, said they believed the International Olympic Committee had discretion to invite anyone it chose to the Games. At least one sport, boxing, has a full slate of Russian participants.

At the same time, it advised the relevant global federations to ban those athletes that had earlier been disqualified for doping, as well as those mentioned in McLaren’s report.

He said: “The first analysis has been done by the global federations; they got further advice from professor McLaren, who elaborated in some cases on his report and gave further evidence and advice”. This follows a previous report by the same agency documenting rampant doping among Russia’s track and field athletes.

Russian breaststroker Yulia Efimova said on Friday she would take part in the Rio Olympics, a day after winning an appeal against a doping ban, but there was no immediate confirmation from swimming’s governing body FINA.

Also Thursday, the IOC’s rule barring Russian athletes with prior doping sanctions from competing in the games was rejected as “unenforceable” by an Olympic sports arbitration panel. “I think this tense atmosphere has done us some good”.

Instead, the IOC asked global federations to examine individual Russian athletes to determine if they should be eligible for the games.

“With this respect for individual justice we can also send a very clear message to clean athletes and to those in Russian Federation in particular”, he said. This is destroying justice. The hosts got off to a disappointing start with 0-0 draw against South Africa, a result that prompted loud jeers by some of the home fans.

Court wins boost Russian team in Rio was posted in Sports of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on August 07, 2016 and was last updated on August 07, 2016.

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IOC's final ruling on Russian athletes goes down to wire