Russia’s Olympic Committee and 68 Russian athletes filed a lawsuit with the Court of Arbitration for Lausanne to challenge the IAAF’s decision to bar them from participation in the Olympic Games. Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren will hold a news conference in Toronto on Monday July 18, 2016, to present the findings of his probe into alleged manipulation of doping samples in Russian Federation.
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The IAAF rejected the applications of all Russian athletes for admission to worldwide competitions, including the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, amid a doping scandal in Russian sports, except for Klishina who was training in the United States, reports TASS.
McLaren was appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency to investigate allegations of a state-backed doping conspiracy involving the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach does not expect an impact on the next Games but if Russian Federation is accused of institutional corruption in the report, the IOC will have to react. “If, at the end of this procedure, there should be proven infringements of the anti-doping rules or manipulation of tests, then together with the winter sports federations we will take the necessary measures”.
“It is obvious that you can not sanction or punish a badminton player for infringement of rules or manipulation by an official or lab director in the Winter Games”, he said in a phone interview with The Associated Press and two other worldwide news agencies.
Long jumper Darya Klishina, the only Russian athlete cleared to compete in this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio, says she does not feel a traitor. In a press release, the IAAF states Klishina met the “exceptional eligibility criteria” and was sufficiently drug tested by systems outside Russian Federation. The IOC is now studying her case and whether it merits “an exemption” from the Olympic Charter.
Belarus and weightlifting superpower Kazakhstan are also banned from Rio, pending International Olympic Committee confirmation after 17 weightlifters re-tested positive, while Bulgaria is already banned.
“We have to see the allegations”, Bach said.
Bach declined to speculate whether the widespread doping could lead to weightlifting being thrown out of the Olympics, other than saying: “All sports are evaluated after each Games and the fight against doping is one of the major criteria”.
“We’ll consider all opinions and take a decision”. “The right to individual justice applies to every athlete in the world”. “If the fans turn their backs at a time when we are dismissed and rejected, it is the worst thing that can happen”, Klishina concludes.
Bach says the International Olympic Committee has to “respect the individual decisions” of golfers who pulled out citing concerns over Zika, but notes that there have also been “very different reasons” not related to the virus that have led some to skip the games.
More than 20 male players, including the top four in the world, have pulled out of Rio, a lot of them citing fears about the Zika virus, while Rory McIlory said on Tuesday he would not even watch on TV and instead follow “sports that matter”.
Klishina has responded to the criticism, defending her right to be allowed to take part in the Games.
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“But we have put a very strong focus on legacy – both in terms of infrastructure and social legacy”.
