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.
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A statement issued by CAS on Saturday said the two swimmers had asked sport’s highest court to declare the International Olympic Committee ruling “invalid and unenforceable”.
Members of Brazilian army stand guard near the Olympic Park as part of security operations for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 24, 2016.
Russia’s eight-strong Olympic Games weightlifting team was banned from the Rio Games on Friday (July 29) in the latest doping-related blow to the sporting powerhouse.
“This is our guideline as we must dispel all doubts for young athletes so that they continue practicing their sports”, the two-time Olympic champion added.
“They should have made a decision to permit all athletes with spotless reputation (to the Games, )” he said, specifically referring to Oleg Chen and David Berdzhanyan.
The track team did, however, attend the ceremonial farewell with Putin on Wednesday, when the Russian president branded restrictions on Russia as “pure discrimination”.
CAS said the appeals were filed against the International Olympic Committee and FINA. Rejecting calls by more than a dozen anti-doping agencies for a complete ban on Russia, the International Olympic Committee left it to individual sports federations to vet which athletes could compete or not.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Friday that, so far, 272 of the country’s athletes had been cleared by worldwide federations, out of an original team of 387.
In the aftermath of that report, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) resisted huge pressure to impose a blanket ban on Russian Federation from the Olympics which get under way on Aug 5.
Wrestling is one of Russia’s strongest sports, with the team winning 11 medals at London 2012 including four golds.
Some Russian athletes had flown to Rio in advance of the main delegation, including gymnasts and swimmers.
Two of Russia’s eight nominated weightlifters were already barred from Rio because they had previously failed doping tests, and the IWF said Friday that seven athletes from the 2012 and 2008 Olympics have failed recent retests from those games.
“Sixteen of the 17 Russian wrestlers entered to compete at the Olympic Games are cleared to be considered for acceptance by the International Olympic Committee/Court of Arbitration for Sport”, a statement from UWW’s special commission read.
This leaves six more sports still to declare their decisions on Russian eligibility: boxing, golf, handball, table tennis, taekwondo and weightlifting. “They didn’t admit me for the Olympics in Rio”.
Smirnov told local media Thursday that the new commission would be independent of the government, despite containing several senior figures with links to the Kremlin.
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“We will welcome the arrival of WADA and we rule out any attempts at interference by the state or other structures”, he said.
