Following the commission’s report, WADA recommended the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and all international sports federations to ban Russian athletes from all international sports competitions, including Rio 2016.
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These include golfer Maria Verchenova, all 11 Russian judo athletes, 31 swimmers (including two who had previously been told they would be banned), all five equestrian athletes, all 30 Russian volleyballers, and all 11 Russian boxers being cleared to compete.
Having rejected calls from athletes’ groups and the anti-doping community for a blanket ban for Russia, IOC president Thomas Bach has repeatedly had to defend his compromise between collective responsibility for Russia’s flagrant cheating and each athletes’ right to justice. AIBA said in a statement.
An independent WADA report undertaken by professor Richard McLaren and published last month alleged that wide-scale doping by Russian athletes had been covered up by the country’s security services over a number of years with the full knowledge of the ministry of sport.
The Olympic Games are set to start in just hours and there’s one big question that remains unanswered – which Russian athletes will be allowed to compete?
But not until a New York Times story in May revealed the Russian government’s role in tampering with urine samples at the Sochi Olympics did WADA authorize the investigation.
The decision, on the eve of the opening ceremony, could invite a dozen more appeals against the ban from Russian competitors, according to the tribunal’s chief, and underlines Russian arguments that the ban lacks legal justification.
In swimming, a sport which traditionally dominates the first week of the Games, 31 Russians out of 35 have ultimately been accepted.
Keep reading for all the details on this unfortunate punishment on the eve of the opening ceremonies.
Another high-profile case pitting world 100 metres breaststroke championYulia Efimova – rumoured to be lodging in the hotel where the IOC Session is taking place – against the IOC, FINA and Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) will resume tomorrow.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – A final ruling on the entry of Russian athletes in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics is coming down to the wire.
The IOC announced on Saturday that a three-member panel would review the decisions by the individual sports federations over the eligibility of Russian athletes.
Reedie, who is also an International Olympic Committee vice president, told The Associated Press that he wanted to set the record straight after Bach’s comments by explaining the agency’s handling of the allegations against the Russians.
“We had to take the necessary decisions”, Bach said.
Since then, WADA director general Olivier Niggli said, the agency “facilitated the transfer of relevant information that is available to date” about individual Russian athletes to the various global federations.
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“We are not responsible for the supervision of doping laboratories”.
