The IOC executive decided that any Russian athlete wanting to go to Rio, where the Games start on August 5, will have to prove that he or she was not involved in the doping which an independent investigator said was organised by the sports ministry and Russian secret service.
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“The decision regarding Russian participation and the confusing mess left in its wake is a significant blow to the rights of clean athletes”, Tygart added. “We are very grateful for the decision to consider that instead of collective responsibility, to look at the rights of individual sportspersons”.
– Federations will have to carry out an individual analysis of each athlete’s anti-doping record “taking into account only reliable adequate global tests, and the specificities of the athlete’s sport and its rules”.
The IOC decision follows the discovery of widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Fellow oarsman Matthew Pinsent said the International Olympic Committee had “passed the buck” and “bottled it” – a phrasing repeated by former Team GB heptathlete Kelly Sotherton – and called it a “bad day”.
“We have set the bar to the limit”, IOC president Thomas Bach said after the meeting in defending the action against the worst doping scandal in the Olympic movement’s history. “This may not please everybody, but this result is one which is respecting the rules of justice and all the clean athletes all over the world”.
The New Zealand Olympic Committee has thrown its support behind the decision.
The IOC had said that disciplinary proceedings would be opened against Russian officials cited in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) McLaren report on Monday.
“I wonder how the viewing public will react to the Games when they see Russian athletes lined up against clean athletes in competitions”.
The International Olympic Committee on Sunday ordered individual sports federations to decide whether Russian competitors should take part in the Rio Games after failing to agree on a complete ban over Russia’s state-run doping.
9 November 2015: Russian Federation should be banned from athletics completion and were guilty of state-sponsored, systemic doping practices, says Wada’s independent commission.
Athletics celebrate during the Russian track and field championship held in June 2016 in Cheboksary, Russia, Valeriya Nikonova and Yelena Isinbayeva pose for a picture with athletes after competing.
“The IOC had an opportunity to exercise leadership and they chose the easier path and pushed their responsibility over to the IFs (individual sports federations)”, he said.
“It would be quite hard for us to think we should ban an entire team, which will include some cyclists who are not implicated in any of these stories we’ve been hearing”, said Brian Cookson, president of the International Cycling Union.
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“We’re going to have to look at it case by case, rider by rider and team by team”.
