Also in attendance were 49 members of Russia’s track and field team, who have been barred from the Rio Olympics.
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) rejected calls to impose a blanket ban on Russians competing at the Rio Games, which start on August 5, after the independent McLaren report found evidence of state-sponsored doping at the Sochi Olympics. “But there is one very important and remarkable feature in our Russian nature – difficulties only strengthen and unite us, arouse the tremendous spiritual strength and open the way to the most hard heights”, he said.
“The apartments are completed on the outside, but when we tested them we found problems with plumbing and electricity”, he said.
Russia had originally planned to send a 387-person team, but that has steadily been reduced as federations removed those who had previously served doping bans and those implicated in World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren’s report alleging a massive cover-up of failed drug tests.
Earlier in the day, dozens of Russian competitors in other sports flew off to Brazil after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) resisted a blanket ban against the country.
Maintaining its ban, the IAAF said the applications by 68 Russian athletes for eligibility to compete in Rio were assessed carefully and individually by its Doping Review Board.
Efimova’s agent has said he is preparing an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and the Russian Canoe Federation’s general secretary Irina Sirayeva said that the five banned athletes could follow suit. He spoke with two-time Olympic pole-vaulting champion Yelena Isinbayeva, the most high-profile of the 67 track and field athletes banned from the games, standing beside him. “We must come together as an global community – comprised of those who truly believe in the spirit of Olympism – to ensure this unprecedented level of criminality never again threatens the sports we cherish”. She also won five silver medals, including at least one in every Olympics between 2000 and 2012. “We need to fight for those athletes who were disqualified”.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) made a decision on Sunday not to ban the entire Russian Olympic team from participating in the Rio Olympics, choosing to leave it to individual sports federations to decide on athletes’ participation.
“The IOC said earlier this year that worldwide sports federations should not be involved in anti-doping work as they have a conflict of interest, and now, in nearly the same breath, they’re saying we’ll now give responsibility back to them”.
Governing bodies must rule on whether Russian athletes can compete in Rio following the country’s doping scandal.
Russian Federation had originally selected 387 athletes, but more than 100 of them will miss the games after a doping scandal.
So with 100 of its track and field athletes banned from the Rio Olympic Games after sensational revelations of systemic state-backed doping programs, it’s holding its own party.
Russian national coach Yuriy Borzakovskiy will oversee it.
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“Believe me, Russian athletics will live forever”.
