US Olympic team swimmer Mark Spitz in training for Munich Summer Olympics.
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Russian Federation is confident that most of its Olympic team will be able to compete in Rio de Janeiro, but its efforts to reinstate banned athletes are a mixed bag. The International Weightlifting Federation banned all eight Russian contenders – five men and three women – entered for Rio.
A spokesman for Rio’s fire department declined to comment.
Russia’s largest losses are in track and field, with 67 of 68 athletes barred, while the situation remains unclear in some sports, notably weightlifting and boxing.
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president Craig Reedie, who is also an International Olympic Committee vice-president, is to give a report on the agency’s activities later. Putin addressing Russian athletes said “no concrete, evidence-based accusations” had been brought against Russian athletes.
With the start of the Rio Olympics six days away, McLaren said in a statement that sports federations tasked by the International Olympic Committee to determine which Russians can compete have flooded him with requests to name athletes implicated in connection with his probe.
The IOC has taken fierce criticism for not ordering a blanket ban on Russian Federation after an independent report said there was state-organized doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. About 117 Russian competitors from the 387 initially put forward by the Russian Olympic Committee have now been banned from the Games.
On Thursday, labour inspectors told the Guardian they were horrified by workplace conditions on Olympic sites and related infrastructure projects.
Cold War at Its “Best”! But the Olympics have sustained these blows and continued unhindered.
Moscow has announced a counter show “Stars 2016” in Moscow that will feature the athletes banned from competing in Rio, including the hurdler Sergey Shubenkov and the high jumper Mariya Kuchina, both of whom were world champions in Beijing a year ago. Dutch, Italian and Belorussian athletes also raised concerns.
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Igor Kazikov told state-owned television channel on Friday that every member of the team who had arrived by Thursday has already been tested for doping at least once. However, some 200 were set to go after the ruling bodies of fencing, triathlon and volleyball approved all of Russia’s proposed athletes for Rio on Wednesday.
