Jul 28, 2016- The Russian Olympic team, hard-hit by a series of doping bans, has gathered at an airport in Moscow to fly to Brazil for the Rio Games.
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Meanwhile, Russia will still appear at the Rio Olympics in most other sports after the International Olympic Committee last week opted against a blanket ban of Russians at the Games, despite evidence from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) of doping in other sports.
That formed the basis for the first independent WADA report last November, which led to the current ban on Russian track and field athletes from competing internationally.
Because the worldwide governing bodies of individual sports, especially ones with fewer resources, will be hard-pressed to vet so many athletes in the handful of days remaining before the August 5 games opening, the integrity of every Russian competitor will now be tainted, even those who compete cleanly.
Speaking in one of the grand halls of the Kremlin on Wednesday, Putin told members of the Russian Olympic team, including those barred from Rio, that they fell victim to “double standards” imposed by “shortsighted politicians”.
But it was Putin who assumed the role of head cheerleader, the 63-year-old former KGB officer bidding the country’s athletes good luck, calling them “winners” and promising them financial rewards if they won medals in Rio.
Russian Federation has made a decision to put together a tournament for the athletes who were denied the chance to compete at this year’s Rio Olympics due to, you know, years of systematic drug cheating.
No track and field athletes were among the contingent heading for Rio, since the entire track team is banned from competing, except for a single USA -based long jumper, following revelations of widespread doping.
But the International Judo Federation, which lists the Russian President Vladimir Putin as its honorary president, has allowed Russian athletes to participate.
Putin complained that the blanket athletics ban penalizes Russian stars like pole-vaulting champion Yelen Isinbayeva, who has never tested positive for doping. The head of Russia’s trampolining federation, Nikolai Makarov, told TASS news agency that he had received “verbal permission” from the sport’s global authorities for the team to take part.
The International Weightlifting Federation says 11 more weightlifters, including six silver and bronze medalists, have tested positive in retests of samples from the 2012 London Olympics. The Russian lifting team risks being banned from the Rio Games en masse because of the large number of failures in retests from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
“Fans will be able to follow sports, athletes and the stories behind the Olympic Games”.
The new Russian commission will be run by Vitaly Smirnov, a former Soviet sports minister and International Olympic Committee member, who insisted it would be independent of the government, despite it containing several senior figures with links to the Kremlin.
Speaking to CNN for the first time since their evidence came to light in 2014, Vitaly Stepanov, a former employee at the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA, and his wife, 800 meter runner Yulia Stepanova, said the International Olympic Committee missed a crucial opportunity to dismantle Russia’s doping culture.
“For the Rio Olympics most viewing is likely to continue to be on the best (and biggest) screen available”, said JJ Eastwood.
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“It’s clear from what we’ve seen from Russian Federation, and what we know about doping that’s happening in other countries, that athletes are still doping and some are getting away with it”.
