Two reports from the World Anti-Doping Agency have accused Russian Federation of orchestrating a doping program that saw drug-tainted samples disappear or manipulated.
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“CAS rejects the claims/appeal of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and 68 Russian athletes”, the arbitration court said in a statement.
On Monday, an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commission led by McLaren presented a report in which Russian Federation was accused of having run a state-sponsored doping program.
Time is crucial because the Olympics begin August 5th, and decisions about Russia’s participation in Rio must be made because thousands of athletes from other countries are waiting to see if spots will open up that they didn’t qualify for over Russian Federation. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
The ruling upheld the stance of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), namely that Russia’s track and field federation (the ARAF) can not name athletes to compete at Rio.
“We will now have to study and analyze the full decision”, the International Olympic Committee said in a statement.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, whose department is deeply implicated in the allegations of state-backed doping, dismissed the ruling as “political and one with no legal basis”.
Russia’s sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, says he will consider what steps to take following the decision, warning that things can not be left as they are.
As it stands, the IAAF has approved just two Russians to compete, as “neutral athletes”, after they showed they had been training and living overseas under a robust drug testing regime.
Russia’s last chance at getting its track and field athletes to the 2016 Summer Olympics has been rejected.
The IOC is examining the legal options of a blanket ban following a report by WADA investigator Richard McLaren that accused Russia’s sports ministry of overseeing doping of athletes.
Following the ruling, CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said the ROC could appeal against the decision in the Swiss Federal Court.
With the IOC decision looming, Russian authorities cancelled a traditional ceremonial send-off for the country’s Olympic team on Thursday, saying they would wait to see what happened.
The Kremlin expressed “deep regret” over the move and said that it was unfair to ban all athletes from competing at the Games.
Meanwhile, the IAAF welcomed the decision, although its president, Seb Coe, said that “this is not a day for triumphant statements” despite being thankful that the CAS had supported “our rules and our power to uphold our rules”. It is our federation’s instinctive desire to include, not exclude. “We are seeing a unsafe return to politics interfering with sport”, Putin said in a statement on the Kremlin’s website.
At least two Russian athletes – 800m runner and doping whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova and US-based long jumper Darya Klishina – have already taken advantage of that decision.
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“It’s sad but rules are rules”, said Olympic 100m and 200m champion Usain Bolt, who will be chasing more gold medals in Rio.
