Only four Russian rowers are allowed to compete in 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, President of the Russian Rowing Federation Veniamin But told TASS on Friday.
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It will be used to test samples from the Rio Olympics after the games to see if any athletes were gene doping. “But suddenly we were confronted with the problem that this could not be considered as worldwide testing”, Mutko said, citing the testing criteria established by the IOC for each athletes’ participation in Rio.
While the U.S., Russia, Germany, and China are sure to dominate the medal-count conversation once again, there are scores of athletes more than capable of bringing precious hardware – and rapturous pride – back to their countries. It said the punishment was an “appropriate sanction” to “preserve the status of the sport”.
While many insisted to the contrary, spectators reported a strong sense of defiance and opposition against the decision to ban Russian athletes from the Olympics.
A ban against freestyle wrestler Viktor Lebedev, a former two-time world champion, and three cyclists announced yesterday takes the number of Russian athletes suspended from Rio to 112.
According to a recently released report from the World Anti-Doping Agency, Russia’s government ran a “systematic scheme” to infuse the Russian team with performance-enhancing drugs and to cover up that cheating, before, during and after the 2014 Winter Olympics, which Russia hosted. For the women, Albania, Georgia and Moldova became eligible.
“It should show that no matter how much pressure they put on us we are ready to fight and run further”, said Pavel Ivashko, victor of the 400m race.
Russian Federation had originally planned to send a 387-person team.
Isinbayeva had applied again for an individual exemption but was refused by the IAAF, track’s world governing body.
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“Unfortunately they didn’t make an exception for me”, she wrote on Instagram. “They (competitors in Rio) would probably have been afraid of us”. “The miracle didn’t happen”.
