IOC President Thomas Bach confirmed during a news conference Thursday that a final decision on which Russian athletes will be able to take part in the Games will arrive before Friday.
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The International Olympic Committee announced the news on August 4th after discussing the serious problem with each official of the 28 sports featured in the summer Olympics.
29 Russian swimmers are set to compete, in what will be one of the bigger teams for the nation.
According to the details, the commission claimed it had found evidence that Russia’s sports ministry and the centre for training of Russian national teams and the Federal Security Service had covered up a doping program in Russian sports.
Russian boxers, judokas and shooters were among those given last-minute approval by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the aftermath of a doping scandal which has tarnished Russia’s reputation as a sporting superpower and threatened to split the Olympic movement.
The International Olympic Committee was to announce its final figure for the Russian squad later on Thursday.
CAS upheld the IAAF’s ban, meaning all but one Russian track and field athlete was barred from competing in Rio. “The majority of the sports have been admitted in full”.
Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov said some other cases remained unresolved after investigations prompted by the discovery of a state-orchestrated plot to dupe drugs testers.
Russian Federation faces a blanket ban on its track and field athletes, with the exception of long distance jumper Darya Klishina, amid the suspension of Russia’s anti-doping agency. “I respect every athlete who may have anther opinion but I can look straightforward into his or her eyes because we have taken our decision with a very good conscience”, said Bach.
That number could still grow, though, as several Russian athletes have appealed against their exclusion from the assessment process because of previous doping convictions.
But rowers Anastasia Karabelshikova and Ivan Podshivalov have been partially successful in appeals to Cas, with a ruling requested “without delay”.
CAS rejected the athletes’ appeal to be granted direct entry into the games, saying it was now up to the worldwide rowing and swimming federations to decide whether to let them in or not.
A total of 119 Russian athletes have been banned from participating in the 2016 Rio Olympics, while 20 are still seeking for reinstatement.
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That report was published just over a fortnight ago and it immediately prompted wide calls from anti-doping agencies and athletes’ groups for Russian Federation to be thrown out of the Rio Games.
