The ban is part of a large-scale doping scandal involving Russian athletes across many sports, including the track and field team.
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a worldwide cessation of hostilities in observance of the Olympic Truce during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and Paralympics. The motion will be in effect until December 31, 2016 and may be reviewed at a December session of the IOC Executive Board.
He says “this panel will decide whether to accept or reject that final proposal”.
Rio officials on Thursday declared the compound “fully ready” after deploying hundreds of plumbers and electricians, who worked around the clock to ready the buildings.
However, the International Olympic Committee now seems to have walked back giving the final say to these bodies, declaring that the panel “will decide whether to accept or reject that final proposal”, according to the BBC. The final decisions will be announced by media release.
The three-person panel comprises Ugur Erdener, president of World Archery and head of the IOC medical and scientific commission, Claudia Bokel of the IOC athletes commission, and Spanish IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, son of the ex-IOC president of the same name.
Most other sports federations have banned Russians with previous doping convictions and those named in McLaren’s report but have permitted those seen as clean to go to Rio.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Friday that 272 of the country’s original 387-strong team had been approved by global sports federations to compete in Rio.
The 800m runner’s testimony helped shed light on the scale of doping in Russian sport, and she was to compete under a neutral flag in Rio.
The panel will consist of three executive board members: Turkey’s Ugur Erdener, chairman of the International Olympic Committee medical commission; Germany’s Claudia Bokel, head of the athletes’ commission; and Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., a vice president of the modern pentathlon federation.
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Their paddles packed and plane tickets booked, the trio were left holding their breath while the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) considered their cases, finally clearing them to compete on Wednesday just hours before they were due to take off.
