The IOC invited International Federations to decide if the Russian athletes in their sports were eligible to compete in Rio and set up an independent IOC panel to make a final decision on the eligibility of athletes.
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The panel will be made up of executive board members: Turkey’s Ugur Erdener, chairman of the International Olympic Committee medical commission; Germany’s Claudia Bokel, head of the athletes’ commission; and Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., a vice president of the modern pentathlon federation.
In what can only be described as a show of great daring, Bach argued that the Rio Games and the International Olympic Committee will emerge unscathed from the chaos surrounding the participation of Russian athletes.
“Imagine if we had not taken a decision, what limbo we would be in then”, Bach said. Finally it ruled that Russian athletes who had previously been banned for anti-doping violations could not compete in Rio. Rejecting calls for a blanket ban on Russia, the International Olympic Committee decided on July 24 that individual sports federations should investigate athletes implicated in the report and decide who should be excluded.
Bach expressed hope that the scandal surrounding Team Russia won’t affect the Rio Games in a negative way.
The IOC Executive Board wrapped up its meeting to evaluate the status of the Games in four hours, with all the members’ questions addressed, Bach said.
“Every human being is entitled to certain rights of natural justice”, said Bach, who also denied suggestions he had bowed to pressure from the Russian government to reject calls by anti-doping authorities for a complete ban.
The turmoil centers on the Russian contingent and hurried deliberations over which of its athletes should be allowed to compete when the Games begin on Friday.
RIO DE JANEIRO Strong winds and high seas lashed structures at Rio 2016 Olympic Games venues as fresh doubts were raised about the quality of local construction work. “People realize we had to take a decision now”.
Bach was right to criticize WADA, as the whole Russian scandal is largely the fault of the anti-doping body itself, Ellis Cashmore, sports writer and sociology professor at Britain’s Aston University, told RT. “Because we’re facing this with just a few days before the Olympic games”, Bach stressed. “The allegations about the Sochi lab, that the Russian Ministry of Sport has orchestrated such a system, there we have taken what preliminary measures that we could, so that no official from this Russian ministry of sport, starting with the minister, can be accredited here in Rio”. “We want them to feel at home”, he said.
“I haven’t been talking to any Russian government official since the publication of the McLaren report and not even in the days or weeks preceding it”, he said.
“We have the expectation that we’re going to have great Games, although, as always, we’ll have some last-minute challenges”.
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“So therefore the IOC can not be made responsible either for the timing or the reasons of these incidents we have to face now and which we are addressing and have to address now just a couple of days before the Olympic Games”.
