However, the ban was quietly overturned, and the International Olympics Committee released a statement last month explaining that “the eligibility of each Russian athlete will have to be decided by his or her international federation based on an individual analysis of his or her international anti-doping record”.
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Many sportsmen and women were still waiting to discover if they were able to take part in Brazil on the eve of the Games, which get underway on Friday.
Russia’s track and field team remains barred following an earlier decision by the IAAF.
In deciding to leave the fates of Russian athletes up to the individual sports, rather than imposing a full ban, “The IOC knows there’s simply not enough time for the federations to make a determination”.
In the other Group A match in Brasilia, Iraq and Denmark also played to a scoreless draw, leaving all four teams tied. “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.
Given the volume of testing to which it has been subjected, Zhukov said, the Russian team “is probably the cleanest in Rio”.
One of the athletes who could take advantage of the new ruling is whistleblower Yulia Stepanova who, together with her husband, ignited the Russian doping scandal by revealing the extent of the state-backed doping programme.
He also remarked that while the rule that bans athletes caught using doping from competing in Olympic Games does seem like a good idea, for some reason it is apparently only applied to Russians, while, for example, USA athletes like Michael Phelps or sprinters who were caught using banned chemical compounds appear to be exempt from it.
Speaking Tuesday, Bach called for a complete overhaul of the anti-doping system. Athletes will have to overcome a presumption of guilt, but given the limited time left before the Games, and the influence Moscow can bring to bear, overtly and otherwise, on the various federations, this is a dragnet through which many Russians will slip.
On Russia, the International Olympic Committee was of the opinion that no blanket ban was required, and each Russian athlete must be given the opportunity to rebut the allegations and prove his or her innocence. “And I just don’t think that’s fair”.
Athletes who have been denied entry may appeal to world sports’ arbitration court, which established a satellite office in Rio. As he has since the beginning of the saga, he said that while the presumption of innocence had been reversed “natural justice does not allow us to deprive human beings of the right to prove their innocence”.
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“On top of all that, Russian athletes are going through additional testing which is taking place at the Olympic Village”.
