Russian competitors are set to jet out to Brazil early Thursday but it still remains unclear how numerous 387-strong squad named last week will eventually compete.
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Federer is the first member of tennis’ so-called “Big 4” – a group that also includes top-ranked Novak Djokovic, 14-time major champion Rafael Nadal and 2012 gold medalist Andy Murray – to pull out of the Rio Games, where that sport’s competition starts on August 6, a day after the opening ceremony.
“We can not agree with the sweeping disqualification of our athletes with absolutely – I want to stress – a clean doping history”, Putin is quoted as saying by Russian agency TASS.
Smirnov also insisted the government was not involved in doping, despite allegations in World Anti-Doping Agency reports that Sports Ministry officials oversaw a mass doping program and a cover-up.
Putin has tried to frame the doping scandal in the context of Russia’s tensions with the West following the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, which erupted weeks after he triumphantly hosted the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
After previously suggesting the scheme to target Russian athletes originated in the West his strategy of blaming a conpiracy evokes voters’ patriotism and will likely work to his favour in the sphere of public opinion.
That took the number of Russian athletes banned since Sunday to 41, in addition to the 67 track and field athletes already banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
At the Kremlin reception Putin further cranked up the emotion by inviting two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva to address the team.
The hurdler Sergey Shubenkov told the state television channel Rossiya 24: “If you meet unfair competition, you should do everything so that this unequal fight will go in your favour … you should be so strong that no one can catch you”.
The Russian leader, however, praised the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which, “in spite of the huge open pressure on it”, abstained from splitting the Olympic movement and granted international sports federations the right to admit athletes to the Games. “Therefore, ITU will recommend to the International Olympic Committee that these six athletes be permitted to compete in Rio next month”.
He said: “The Olympic Village will be fantastic”.
“Compete so the whole world shudders and the hymn of the Russian Federation sounded in the sports arenas of Rio without stopping”.
RIO DE JANEIRO – A near-diplomatic incident – as Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes termed it – came to an end on Wednesday ahead of the Olympics.
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“They have got us fired up but in a good way”, said handball player Polina Kuznetsova of the cheering crowd at Moscow’s Sheremetevo airport. “The entire country will be rooting for the team twice as enthusiastically as before”, Zhukov said. Paes apologized and acknowledged Australia’s ‘was the worst building.
