Prior to that, there was the farewell ceremony for the team that was attended by the country’s male and female volleyball teams, women’s handball team, the boxing team, the synchronized swimming and table tennis teams, as well as the President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), Alexander Zhukov.
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Volleyballer Sergey Tetyukhin has been selected to be the Russian Olympic team’s flag bearer, Yelena Isinbayeva, Russia’s two-time Olympic pole vault champion, posted on Instagram on Thursday.
It is believed more than 200 Russians will compete in Rio despite more evidence emerging on Wednesday of doping by the country’s athletes. At least 105 athletes from the 387-…
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has confirmed that three Russian cyclists have been withdrawn from next month’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, having served doping suspensions in the past.
The Russian athletes departed by SU7150 flight at 08:10 am, Moscow time, Thursday from the Russian capital’s Sheremetyevo airport.
The decision means that each sport’s global federation is to decide whether Russian athletes can compete in their discipline.
“We’re after medals, that’s it”, handball player Anna Sen said as she prepared to board the flight.
“We can’t accept indiscriminate disqualification of our athletes with an absolutely clean doping history”, Putin said. “It is now time to put all doubts aside”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin waves to Chinese children after a welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People on June 25, 2016 in Beijing, China.
Hours after the plane carrying the Russian team took off, the track and field team gathered across town in a small stadium for what was billed as an Olympic consolation event.
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“You can’t break Russians”, she said.
Rio spokesman Mario Andrada says “we haven’t seen enough to say it was organized sabotage” but he acknowledges a few unhappy workers could have caused problems. “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”. “Of course, it will not be easy for those who will go to Rio”.
ARCHERY – Russia’s three-member archery team has been given the all clear to take part in the Rio Games by the World Archery Federation (WA).
But 16 of Russia’s 17 wrestlers were approved after the sport’s governing body, United World Wrestling, completed the process of assessing each Russian athlete’s anti-doping record – as all federations are required to do after the International Olympic Committee declined to impose a blanket ban for the state-directed doping programme uncovered by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren’s investigation.
Other sports, such as judo and tennis, have allowed the entire Russian team to compete in their sport. These rulings must still be ratified by CAS.
Disappointment at the participation of Russian athletes is evident in London, where the Guardian newspaper had published an editorial calling for an “across-the-board Russian exclusion from Rio”.
“I will be undoubtedly following the developments at the Olympic Games, except for track and field competitions”, Isinbayeva said in an interview with TASS.
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Russia’s weightlifting team has been dogged by doping cases and faced further embarrassment Wednesday when retests of samples from the 2012 Olympics saw four Russians, including three medalists, test positive. The Russian Olympic Committee inaugurated a new commission this week to fight doping, on the order of President Vladimir Putin. “In Russia there is not and never has been any state support for doping”.
