With no blanket ban, it will be up to global federations to decide which Russian athletes to accept in their sports at the Rio Games.
Advertisement
Track and field athletes remain unable to compete for Russia at the Rio Olympics following a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision to uphold the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspension of the Russian athletics federation from IAAF membership.
The report produced by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren described extensive doping and coverups across a series of summer and winter Olympic sports and particularly at the Sochi Winter Olympics hosted by Russian Federation in 2014.
The decision also received widespread criticism from other anti-doping bodies, with the USADA chief Travis Tygart and Australian sports minister Sussan Ley voicing their discontent.
Today’s decision from the IOC Executive Board has shifted the responsibility to the IFs concerning the amount of athletes from the scandal-hit nation which will take part in the Games.
For individuals to be excluded from the “collective responsibility” they must have a spotless worldwide records on drug testing, the IOC said, adding that no athlete who has been sanctioned for doping will be eligible to compete in Rio.
The IOC’s decision, revealed on Sunday afternoon, means the individual federations have 12 days to review each athletes’ conduct on a case-by-case basis in a defining moment of president Thomas Bach’s tenure on the committee. Every human being is entitled to individual justice.
Mr Bach, a former Olympic fencing champion, said that Russian sportsmen and women “will have to clear the highest hurdle to take part in the Olympics”.
The IOC verdict comes after WADA’s Independent Commission urged a ban on Russian athletes from all global sports competitions.
But the I-O-C said Russian Federation is barred from entering any athlete who has ever been sanctioned for doping. The IOC executive committee decided not to ban the Russian team.
“You do feel sorry if there are any clean athletes in Russian Federation who have put their hearts and souls into trying to qualify for the Olympics, but at the same time so many of their athletes are in this system”.
Advertisement
And athletics have already ruled that their track and field team will now not be allowed to compete at the Games. “The decision regarding the Russians participating and the confusing mess left in its wake is a significant blow to the rights of clean athletes”.
