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Russian Federation escape total Rio Olympics ban

Russia Athletics Federation asked to help to International Olympic Committee (IOC), that to manage Russian Athletes participation in the Rio Olympic.

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The athletes can compete only if they are able “to provide evidence to the full satisfaction of his or her worldwide federation” that they have satisfied anti-doping requirements, the Lausanne, Switzerland-based IOC said in a statement on Sunday.

The 15-member International Olympic Committee (IOC) body decided on Sunday not to impose a blanket ban on Russian Federation.

The minister went on to say that the decision to ban Russian athletes who has even been sanctioned for doping from the Rio 2016 Olympics is fair, reports Tass.

The worldwide federations of each sport have been left to determine whether Russian athletes can compete in their respective events.

In a statement, the IOC said that it considered as tainted “all Russian athletes seeking entry to the Olympic Games Rio 2016”.

The Russian Olympic team will avoid a full ban from the Summer Games in Rio starting next month despite revelations of a state-run doping system that stretches back to 2011.

“I think in this way, we have balanced on the one hand, the desire and need for collective responsibility versus the right to individual justice of every individual athlete”, IOC President Thomas Bach said on a conference call.

United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) chief executive Travis Tygart issued a stinging criticism of the IOC’s stance.

The ruling apparently failed to influence the decision on whether the entire Russian Olympic team should be banned from the games.

The IOC is banning any Russian athlete who has ever tested positive for drug use.

Anti-doping leaders had argued that the extent of state-backed doping in Russian Federation had tainted the country’s entire sports system, and the only way to ensure a level playing field was to bar the whole team, even if some innocent athletes will lose out.

Radcliffe said: “While I applaud no athlete going to the Games who has previously served a doping suspension – this can not fairly be only Russian athletes”.

But the International Olympic Committee board, meeting via teleconference, decided against the ultimate sanction, in line with Bach’s recent statements stressing the need to take individual justice into account.

“If you do have Russian athletes competing in other sports, the focus of the media are going to be on the Russian athletes in Rio and not the athletes who have proven to be clean and above board”.

Individual sports’ governing bodies will have to decide if Russian competitors are clean and able to take part. Russian runner and whistleblower Yulia Stepanova will not be given permission to compete, the International Olympic Committee clarified, given her prior doping sentence.

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Former Olympic 400m bronze medallist Katherine Merry went further, writing on Twitter: “IOC are useless. what exactly would a country have to do to get a blanket ban?”

Boxing and Gymnastics international federations have said they will rule on the eligibility of Russian athletes for the Rio Olympics