The 15-member International Olympic Committee (IOC) body decided on Sunday not to impose a blanket ban on Russian Federation.
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In its statement WADA president Craig Reedie said it is disappointed that the IOC did not heed WADA’s Executive Committee recommendations that were based on the outcomes of the McLaren Investigation and would have ensured a straight-forward, strong and harmonized approach.
Exeter athlete Jo Pavey has criticised the IOC’s decision to allow Russian athletes to compete in the Olympics.
Australian team chef de mission Kitty Chiller defended the IOC’s move and said no Russian athlete who had been sanctioned for a doping offence could compete in Rio.
The International Olympic Committee on Sunday opted against an outright ban on Russian Federation over a state-run doping scandal in order to protect the rights of clean competitors. Russian Olympic Committee and worldwide 68 Russian track and field Athletes.
The world governing body’s ruling 15-member executive board met on Sunday via teleconference – with the Rio Games’ August 5 opening ceremony less than two weeks away – and decided that responsibility for ruling on the eligibility of Russians remains with the worldwide federations.
Meanwhile, the World Anti-Doping Agency is disappointed that Olympics leaders have rejected their plea to ban Russian Federation completely.
Russia’s Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko has said he is “grateful” to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for not imposing a blanket ban on Russian Federation competing at the Rio Olympics.
Two Russian athletes had been granted exception by track and field’s IAAF to compete in Rio.
“The ITF will be seeking confirmation from WADA that none of those players, or the Russian Tennis Federation, were implicated in the McLaren report, in accordance with the International Olympic Committee decision”, added the ITF statement.
They include the federations applying the WADA Code agreed last month, and the federations have been told not to accept the absence of a positive drugs test from an athletes’ record as sufficient to grant access to the Games.
International Olympic Committee’s decision not to ban Russian Federation from the Rio Games over state-run doping divided international sports leaders Sunday with the opening ceremony 12 days away.
The world governing body’s ruling 15-member executive board met on Sunday via teleconference and decided that responsibility for ruling on the eligibility of Russians remains with the worldwide federations.
“We have set the bar to the limit by establishing a number of very strict criteria which every Russian athlete will have to fulfill if he or she wants to participate in the Olympic Games Rio 2016”, said Thomas Bach, the committee’s president.
While calls had been growing for a blanket ban after the damning evidence in the McLaren report, the IOC said that Russians would be able to participate if cleared by their respective worldwide federations.
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“Disappointingly, however, in response to the most important moment for clean athletes and the integrity of the Olympic Games, the IOC has refused to take decisive leadership”.
