Moss Burmester swam for NZ at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and has labelled the decision to allow Russia’s athletes to compete in Rio ‘a complete sellout’.
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But the I-O-C said Russian Federation is barred from entering any athlete who has ever been sanctioned for doping. However she and her husband, Vitaly Stepanov, have been invited to attend.
Members of its executive board met in a conference call yesterday and granted wide-reaching powers to the 28 individual federations that govern each sport to rule on which Russian athletes would be permitted to compete in their respective disciplines.
“The ITF believes it is right that clean athletes are permitted to compete in Rio 2016 and looks forward to welcoming the Russian tennis players, along with all other nominated athletes, to Rio”.
‘The decision to refuse her entry into the Games is incomprehensible, ‘ he said. “We did not want to penalize athletes who are clean with a collective ban and, therefore, keeping them out of the Games”.
To summarize the effects of the decision, Russian athletes hoping to enter the Rio Games must now be cleared by their own sports governing bodies before competition begins in 12 days.
No competitor or national federation named in the report issued last week by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) can be considered. The IOC said it would propose measures for more transparency and independence.
Never has a country been kicked out of the Olympics for doping violations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned that the affair could split the Olympic movement, bringing echoes of the 1980s when the United States led a political boycott of the Moscow Games of 1980 and the Soviet Union led an Eastern Bloc boycott of the Los Angeles Games four years later. And former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev wrote an open letter to Bach on Friday to plead against a blanket ban. Track and field athletes have already been banned.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenko, Darya Kasatkina, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina will be the female tennis players representing Russian Federation at the games.
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“We are ready, on a fair basis, in cooperation with the IOC, and with the IOC independent committee, together with WADA, to reformat the entire (anti) doping system”, Mutko also said.
