Instead it chose a set of criteria for athletes to meet, including a clean doping past and sufficient testing at worldwide events, that so far has allowed more than 250 out of the original 387 Russian athletes to be cleared for Rio.
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The 129th session was preceded by a meeting of IOC’s executive board that approved candidacies of eight new members.
“I don’t think this event will be damaging”.
“I have no doubt the LA 2024 team will learn a great deal from our experiences here so that we leave better equipped than ever to stage an innovative, sustainable and low-risk Games in a city with the Olympics in its DNA”.
Pressure for a complete ban followed a World Anti-Doping Agency report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren that accused Russia’s sports ministry of overseeing a vast doping conspiracy involving the country’s summer and winter sports athletes.
The McLaren Report recommended a blanket ban for Russian athletes for Rio 2016 but the IOC decided on July 24 that the global federations should rule on their eligibility in their sports and has since set up an independent panel to give a final decision.
A total of 119 Russian athletes have so far been banned from taking part at Rio 2016.
Bach said the International Olympic Committee wants to “shed full light on all the allegations” in McLaren’s report, including evidence that Russian officials replaced tainted urine samples with clean ones during the 2104 Winter Games in Sochi.
“We need to resolve the situation before the Games start and then, afterwards, we will have more time to analyse the situation and study it with a certain distance”.
Sir Craig, who is also a vice-president of the International Olympic Committee, claimed they acted following fresh allegations which emerged in May during an interview given by Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory to the New York Times.
Lebidev has launched his case against the IOC, wrestling’s governing body and the Russian Olympic Committee.
He added: “In these hard decisions you will never have a 100 per cent majority”. “Is it possible to take an athlete and say, ‘Because your government has done something wrong, you automatically are out?’ This would not be justifiable, neither on a moral ground, not to speak on a legal ground”.
“We had to take the necessary decisions”, Bach said.
“The McLaren report revealed a system which is an attack on our Games and an attack on our values but you can not deny the right of athletes to attempt to prove their innocence”.
“The IOC is not responsible for the timing of the McLaren report”, Bach said.
The composition of the Russian team in Brazil is still unconfirmed just five days from the opening ceremony, with three swimmers making emergency appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
On the IOC’s overall efforts to protect clean athletes in the run-up to the Games, Bach referred to the targeted pre-testing programme in which 2,200 athletes were selected and also hailed what he said was “the most comprehensive re-analysis programme” for athletes who competed in the Beijing and London Games.
“It’s coming together”, Bach said. Since she was not allowed to compete at the Rio Olympics, Isinbayeva has not yet decided on whether she will go to Brazil.
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“There will be, as always be some last-minute challenges”, said Bach.
