The International Olympic Committee (IOC) ended any slim hopes that Russian athletes might have had of competing at the Rio Games in August by backing the IAAF’s decision to extend its ban on the country for systematic doping on Saturday.
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The most likely way that Russian-based athletes can secure their place in Rio is by route of appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Hightower took umbrage to that, and pointed at the IAAF’s decision Friday as proof it is trying to protect clean athletes. His spokesman vowed legal steps to defend Russian athletes against a ban.
“I’d be very, very surprised”, he said.
Russia was first banned in November after a damning Wada independent commission report said there was state-sponsored doping and mass corruption in Russian athletics.
Aside from the athletes doping-the use of prohibited drugs or methods to improve training and sporting results-the Times reports that Russian security service personnel participated in the intimidation of testers and tampered with doping sample packages. “Nobody defended us. Nobody fought for our rights and there are huge concerns over IAAF itself and its stance on defending the rights of clean athletes”.
Coates said the focus of the meeting would be for the International Olympic Committee to set guidelines for the IAAF to allow individual Russian athletes to compete in Rio provided they had met certain conditions such as passing drug tests outside Russia.
In an open letter to Coe, Mutko said Russian Federation had overhauled its athletics association and implemented additional testing.
“Clean athletes’ dreams are being destroyed because of the reprehensible behavior of other athletes and officials”, the ministry said. And if there are individual Russian athletes in Rio, especially if they’re running well, the public will look at that and think that nothing has changed.
President Vladimir Putin condemned the ban on Russian athletes’ participation in the Rio Olympics as “unjust”.
“This is a human rights violation. I will prove to the IAAF and WADA that they made the wrong decision”, she said, referring to the World Anti-Doping Agency.
“I hope we will find some solution here, but it does not mean that we will get offended and stop battling doping”, Putin said.
Stepanova, an 800 metres runner described as “a courageous athlete” by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), went into hiding after revealing the details of the problem, and now lives in the United States at a secret location. I will show, so that they understand: “Russian Federation will not be silent”. Athletes who have never tested positive could also appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an global fixture aimed at making decisions on such issues.
“The systematic doping that has been ongoing in Russian Federation – it’s hard to pick the clean athletes”, he said.
But British world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe told Reuters on Thursday: “No one wants to see even one innocent athlete suffer in this, but such blatant disregard for the rules of our sport and the concept of fair play should receive a strong message that it will not be tolerated …”
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“The IOC will initiate further far-reaching measures in order to ensure a level playing field for all the athletes taking part in the Olympic Games [in Rio]”, the statement said.
