This is why the IAAF will allow “a handful” of Russian athletes who can demonstrate spotless anti-doping records, verified by credible testing agencies, to apply to compete in Rio as independents.
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“When the state is accused, then it’s always politics and unfortunately athletes become hostages of such political rulings and the pressure exerted on the country”, Mutko said Monday in comments to Russia’s Interfax news agency. “Because the system in Russian Federation has been tainted by doping from the top level and down, we can not trust that what we call “clean athletes” really are clean”, he added.
An investigation funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency into allegations made by the former director of Moscow’s anti-doping lab Grigory Rodchenkov is now being led by Canadian legal expert Richard McLaren.
Rodchenkov said he operated on instructions from the Sports Ministry, which denies the claim.
Russian track and field athletes are already set to miss out on the event in Brazil, with the IAAF having announced on Friday that the European nation had “not met the reinstatement conditions” to have their ban lifted.
“If the question is only about the athletes who were identified in the new criteria – those who prepared outside Russian Federation – we have one such athlete: Dariya Klishina”, Shlyakhtin said. It also said that the Russian customs service was tampering with athletes’ samples on their way out of the country.
But that was before a statement on Saturday from the IOC’s executive board that said: “The IOC welcomes and supports the IAAF’s strong stance against doping”. “Tomorrow (Russian) athletics won’t be reinstated, I’m totally sure of that”.
The summit on Tuesday is expected to clarify the details of how any Russian athletes – or athletes from other countries under the microscope for doping issues, such as Kenya – might compete in Rio.
The IOC have backed the IAAF’s decision, however some Russian athletes, including the race-walkers Denis Nizhegorodov and Svetlana Vasilyeva, have launched an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“We’re going to be following the (Olympic) selection criteria and living with a confident feeling that some will go to the Olympics, that they’ll let some of our athletes in”, he said.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday that Moscow supports the right of clean athletes from Russia to take part in the Olympics.
