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Russian Stepanova will not appeal over Rio ban

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said on Friday night that its ad hoc division in Rio had so far registered 21 cases involving Russian athletes fighting their exclusion from the Games.

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Pound, the first president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), declared himself “hugely disappointed by the IOC’s lack of resolve in dealing with proven government-sponsored cheating”.

A Greek athlete has been kicked out of the Rio Olympics for failing a drugs test, the Hellenic Olympic Committee has announced.

Russian whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova will not appeal to the Court of Arbitation for Sport (CAS) over her ban from running as an independent athlete at the Olympic Games in Rio.

The Independent Panel of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled on Thursday to allow Russian swimmers Nikita Lobintsev and Vladimir Morozov to participate in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

After the review, the IOC declared in Thursday’s statement: “271 athletes will form the team entered by the Russian National Olympic Committee from the original entry list of 389 athletes”.

Zhukov told reporters that no team has been drug tested as much as Russian Federation.

“We believe that the IOC’s focus on Yuliya’s past sanction for doping shifts the spotlight away from the real issue, which is that the IOC took no action against Russian Federation for punishing Yuliya for being a credible whistle-blower by refusing to put her on Russia’s Olympic team”, the statement continued.

The report issued by McLaren on July 18 said Russia’s sports ministry was helped by the secret service to manipulate Russian samples at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other major events in Russia. CAS said the rule “does not respect the athletes’ right of natural justice”.

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Pound said the IOC now faces a long campaign “to earn back its reputation for safeguarding the integrity of Olympic competition and protecting clean athletes”.

A spectator wrapped in a Brazilian flag looks on ahead the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Maracana stadium