More than 100 athletes from what was originally a 387-strong team have been barred from competing in Rio by worldwide sports federations under sanctions which most Russian athletes consider unfair.
Advertisement
Russian Olympic Committee chairman Aleksandr Zhukov expects a final decision to be made on all his athletes by Thursday, according to the state-run TASS news agency.
“Russia will not tolerate the fact that this is a blatant discrimination”.
Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko tried one last time to get athletics’ world governing body to change its mind with a personal plea to IAAF president Lord Coe on Tuesday.
A tearful Isinbayeva, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, stood by Putin’s side and urged Rio-bound athletes to “show them what you’re able to do – for yourself and for us too”.
“Russia must show that it is fully committed to a clean and honest fight and that it is ready for a real partnership with the sporting world in its opposition to the use of doping, ” Putin said.
“The situation went beyond the legal field as well as common sense”, Putin told the audience, which included numerous banned athletes.
“.the absence of Russian sportspeople – leaders in many sporting disciplines – will significantly affect the intensity of the competition and diminish the spectator value of the forthcoming events”.
The fencing federation president is Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Fencing’s governing body the FIE said they had re-examined the results from 197 drug tests taken by Russian fencers between 2014 and 2016 and all came back negative.
Alexander Dyachenko, an Olympic champion in 2012, was among five canoeists ruled out after being named in a recent report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren alleging a state-sponsored doping cover-up.
The McLaren report found that the doping program was developed after the Russian team finished 11th at the 2010 games in Vancouver, its worst performance since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In a news release issued on Wednesday, the ITTF said its investigation included individual tests outside the Russian anti-doping system.
The IOC’s new Olympic Channel will be launched next month following the closing ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Four-time world breaststroke champion Yulia Efimova also plans to appeal her ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The International Gymnastics Federation said it has established a “pool of eligible Russian athletes” and is awaiting IOC approval.
Any medal won in Rio in the absence of Russian athletes would be worth much less than usual, he added, predicting many victories would be hollow. In his native Germany, IOC President Thomas Bach is facing increasing criticism for failing to impose a complete ban on Russia’s team.
Advertisement
However, some of Russia’s biggest stars such as pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and hurdles runner Sergey Shubenkov are staying home this summer; Moscow has chose to give them some semblance of the competition they will miss.
