The Summer 2016 Olympics is scheduled to open August 5.
Advertisement
Olympic officials announced Thursday that 271 Russian athletes would be allowed to compete in the Games – 118 fewer than the country hoped to enter – largely settling the question of Russia’s participation less than 24 hours before the opening ceremony.
The IOC asked global sports federations to decide which Russian athletes should be cleared to compete after a review of their doping records. Overall, more than 100 Russians have been excluded, including 67 in track and field.
WADA called for a blanket ban on Russian athletes in Rio as a result but the International Olympic Committee initially opted to leave the decision up to the governing bodies of individual sports. Under the decision late last month to delegate that responsibility and not ban Russia entirely, the International Olympic Committee required that an independent expert from the Court of Arbitration for Sport review the decisions of the federations.
A final ruling on the entry of Russian athletes in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics is coming down to the wire.
Zhukov told reporters that no team has been drug tested as much as Russian Federation.
He said: “The message is clear – we want to keep the cheaters away from the Olympic Games”. “The majority of the sports have been admitted in full”. “I think this is a very thorough, strict and clear procedure”.
Several worldwide federations announced separately that they had received final approval for Russian entries, including boxing, judo, equestrian, volleyball, golf and gymnastics.
Russia’s track and field team remains barred following an earlier decision by the sport’s governing body, IAAF.
Meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed the International Olympic Committee rule that bars from the games any Russian athletes with prior doping sanctions, saying it amounts to sanctioning someone twice for one offence. He said his organization could not be blamed for the timing of the McLaren report, published just two weeks before the commencement of the Rio Games, or the fact that information previously offered to WADA was not followed up.
For him personally, Bach said, the test for defending the decision was “to look into the eyes of all the athletes”.
Also Thursday, the IOC’s rule barring Russians with prior doping sanctions from competing was rejected as “unenforceable” by the arbitration court.
The court says it should now up to the International Rowing Federation to decide “without delay” whether or not Karabelshikova and Podshivalov can compete.
The IOC had tried to ban cheats from the Games in 2011 with its own “Osaka rule” – a suspension from the next Olympics for anyone with a six-month doping ban or longer – but that was also thrown out by CAS at the time. It is unclear whether she will be competing for the Russian team or as an independent athlete. Those officials had been asked to scrutinize the drug-testing history of each Russian athlete.
Advertisement
CAS say the Olympic ban was unenforceable, saying an athlete can not be sanctioned twice for a doping offence.
