Two Russian weightlifters have been banned for doping in a further hit to the credibility of both Russian sport and weightlifting ahead of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
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Amid widespread agonizing within the International Olympic Committee over how to handle its biggest doping scandal, the final verdict could come less than 10 days from the Rio opening ceremony on August 5.
Some 387 athletes from across 30 sports were named in the Russian squad, which was published on the Olympic Committee’s website.
Russia’s Olympic Committee pressed on Thursday with its preparations for the Rio Olympic Games despite the threat of a ban for state-run doping hanging over the country.
Pound is a former head of WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency), and believes a ban is the right course of action because the McLaren report had failed to determine the innocence of any Russian Federation athletes under the umbrella of state doping. “They are concerned about the events around the national team but this does not inhibit them”, Zhukov told reporters.
They added that they also wanted to take into consideration the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision on Russia’s appeal against the ban imposed by athletics’ world governing body the IAAF on the Russian track and field team. The IOC will consider the verdict before it makes its final decision.
The IAAF announced late last month that it amended the organization’s regulations in order to allow field and track athletes from Russian Federation to submit individual applications for global tournaments. The International Association of Athletics Federations upheld the ban last month, a decision accepted by the IOC.
“Russia will not take part in boycotts”. He added that regardless of the ruling, Russian Federation would not boycott the games – as the Soviet Union did in 1984 in response to a United States boycott in 1980. That appeal started yesterday and a decision is expected tomorrow.
New claims are made by ARD that Russian and Kenyan athletes are doping based on a leaked IAAF database of 12,000 blood tests from 5,000 competitors.
But the IOC said after the talks it will first “explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice”.
That includes Mutko, who has denied that the government directed the doping programme.
The IOC can also let individual global federations decide to ban Russians in their own sports.
Russian track athletes have already been banned from showing up to race in Rio.
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World Rowing also said it “is undertaking a complete review of testing of Russian rowers since 2011” and has asked WADA for any evidence related to doping by Russian rowers.
