The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday rejected the Russian Olympic Committee’s appeal against the ban on its athletes from track and field competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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The ruling is a major setback for Russia as it awaits a decision from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on whether to ban all Russian athletes from the games over alleged state-run doping.
Under IAAF Rules, Russian track and field athletes are ineligible to compete in worldwide competitions unless they satisfy specific criteria.
“Today’s judgement has created a level playing field for athletes”, said an IAAF statement.
The global rowing federation said Wednesday it was investigating whether Russian rowers’ places at the Rio Olympics could be reallocated to athletes from other countries “if there would be a blanket ban on the Russian team or any other ban”.
Sports minister Vitaly Mutko apologised for Russia’s failure to catch the cheats but stopped short of admitting the scandal had been state-sponsored.
“These boycotts just lead to a breakup of the Olympic movement”, he said.
“The punishment for all the athletes, even in the form applied only to track and fielders, is totally unacceptable and unjust”, Czech Olympic Committee President Jiri Kejval said in an interview published by the Lidove Noviny newspaper. Gleb Sidorchenko, who placed third in the discus on Thursday, said athletes were anxious their state salaries could be cut.
Some senior figures in sport believe the IOC should consider banning the Russian Federation team outright based on its Olympic charter.
“It’s a conspiracy of the state through the ministry of sport, the anti-doping organisation, their security service and the previously accredited Moscow lab”.
“I did not come into this sport to stop athletes from competing”, Coe said.
Sports officials in Moscow condemned the ruling and some athletes, including two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva, said the Rio Games will be devalued, with only “pseudo-gold medals” adorning the top finishers.
The court, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, upheld the “validity” of the IAAF ban, saying a country whose national federation is suspended is ineligible from entering worldwide competitions, including the Olympics.
To receive exceptional eligibility, athletes would have to show an IAAF doping review board that they had been subject to effective anti-doping control systems in other countries and that they had not been tainted by the Russian system. The IOC and the CAS decision said that Klishina could compete under the Russian flag.
Hammer thrower Sergei Litvinov, who was on Russia’s track and field team for next month’s Olympics, tells The Associated Press he is “very sad” to miss the games but hopes the team’s ban will mean more serious reforms.
Schwazer, who won the world 50km title in Rome this year, asked CAS to treat his appeal as an urgent request but this was dismissed and sport’s highest court has instead initiated an expedited arbitration procedure to rule on the case.
The ruling is likely to weigh heavily on whether the International Olympic Committee could bar the entire Russian Federation team across all sports following new allegations of a vast government-organized doping program.
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“The decision is unfair because every athlete who dreams of the Olympics and who doesn’t dope should be able to compete”, she said.
