Darya Klishina, who competes in the long jump, was cleared by an appeals court Monday, allowing her to compete as the sole representative of Russia’s Track and Field team.
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Perhaps playing in her favor, Klishina had not been training in Russian Federation, where state officials had routinely tried to cheat the system, instead she had spent the last three years training in Florida.
Last month, IAAF’s anti-doping department rejected personal applications from all Russian track and field athletes to participate in global competitions, including the Olympic Games in Rio, except for long jumper, Klishina.
US-based Klishina was the only Russian athlete allowed in at the Rio Games by the IAAF because she underwent doping tests outside Russia.
On August 13, the IAAF press service told TASS that Klishina had been banned from the Olympic competitions because of new evidence, which emerged last week.
She was given the green light since she has trained outside of Russian Federation for the past three years and underwent the systematic drug-testing.
On June 17, the IAAF Council ruled it was still too early to restore ARAF’s (All-Russia Athletics Federation) membership in the global organisation subsequently extending the suspension of Russian athletes from all worldwide tournaments, including the 2016 Olympic Games.
The CAS panel decided that despite McLaren s new information, Klishina “complied with the relevant criteria (to compete at Rio) because of her permanent residence outside Russian Federation”.
Klishina attended Sunday’s hearing in person at the court’s temporary base at a beachfront hotel in Rio, then trained near the Olympic Stadium on Sunday night while awaiting the court’s decision.
Klishina is managed by IMG, who has been at the forefront of the case.
In comments to the R-Sport news agency before the decision was announced, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said the accusations against Klishina were part of a “campaign directed against Russian sport, to discredit it”.
Klishina expressed her relief in a post on Facebook, and said she was relieved to only have the long jump competition to focus on.
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More than 100 Russian Olympians were banned from the games after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) uncovered a massive, state-sponsored cheating scandal.
