Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov, center, passes through Russia’s National Olympic team members during the ceremony before Russian team’s departure for Rio Olympics, in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, Russia, Thursday, July 28, 2016.
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Dyachenko won gold in the men’s double kayak 200 meters at the 2012 London Games.
The Russian track and field team had already been barred from competing in Rio by the sport’s governing body, the IAAF.
The decision came after the FIE said it had re-examined 197 tests taken from Russian fencers in 35 countries over the last two years which all came back negative.
President Vladimir Putin said a shadowy political plot had succeeded in unfairly stripping some Russian sportspeople of the right to compete at the Rio Olympics over doping allegations and promised to defend Russia’s tarnished sporting reputation. Does this then mean that the McLaren report, commissioned by the International Olympic Committee to investigate the extent of doping in Russian sports, is not being used by Moscow’s rivals to single out and shame Russia on the world stage, given that many other nations have faced this problem but without such harsh penalties?
“The FIVB is 100% committed to protecting clean athletes and will take immediate action to suspend any athletes who have infringed anti-doping rules”.
“The IOC want to ban Russian Federation to show [doping] is an assault on the whole of sport”, the alleged insider said. He also called for unified global standards for doping control.
At least 104 Russians have been banned from attending the Olympics.
Two-time Olympic pole vault champion, Russia’s Yelena Isinbaeva, says the final decision on her participation in the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is expected on Thursday.
Of the International Association of Athletics Federations’ decision to reject the eligibility applications of 67 of Russia’s 68-strong athletics team, the Tass news agency quoted Putin as saying it had “gone beyond legal boundaries as well as beyond the point of common sense”.
The International Gymnastics Federation said it has established a “pool of eligible Russian athletes” and is awaiting IOC approval.
Putin has tried to frame the doping scandal in the context of Russia’s tensions with the West following the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, which erupted weeks after he triumphantly hosted the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
On Monday, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) said that Morozov, Lobintsev and Ustinova had been mentioned in the WADA report and so would not compete in Rio.
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Thus far, 108 Russians – including the track and field team – have been barred from competition this year. She should be an Olympic feel-good story for Russians – instead, some of her countrymen have turned on her. On social media she’s been denounced as a traitor, and one pro-Kremlin journalist even likened her to Soviet soldiers who collaborated with Nazis during World War II.
