Russian Federation held a competition in Moscow on Thursday-the day the national team left for Rio-for those athletes who had been barred for doping.
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Two female weightlifters – Tatiana Kashirina and Anastasiia Romanova – were withdrawn by the Russian federation for earlier doping offenses.
Weightlifting’s reputation “has been seriously damaged on multiple times and levels by the Russians, therefore an appropriate sanction was applied in order to preserve the status of the sport”, the IWF said.
To replace the eight Russian lifters in Rio, five countries were offered places in the men’s competition – Belarus, Croatia, El Salvador, Mongolia and Serbia.
So far, at least 117 individuals from the 387 that the Russian Olympic Committee wanted to enter have been excluded.
“We want to make it absolutely clear that we are the ones making the final call”, he said.
But then the International Olympic Committee opted to introduce the refugee team for the Rio Games, and the 29-year-old won selection.
The decision is effective as of today.
IOC President Thomas Bach speaks to the impact a refugee Olympic team in Rio will have on the ongoing humanitarian crisis. For a while, it had seemed that Kenya would be locked out of the Olympics after it was noted that although the country had enacted legislation which outlawed doping, some technical provisions of the Anti-Doping Act 2016 were inconsistent with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code. The only team’s athlete who has not arrived in the city yet is Ethiopian Yonas Kinde, who will compete in the marathon.
Ms. Tatiana Kashirina’s and Ms. Anastasiia Romanova’s nominations were withdrawn by the ROC due to prior anti-doping rule violations.
The move has been criticised around the world for punishing Yulia Stepanova, the athlete who exposed the state-sanctioned doping. Anyone implicated in McLaren’s report would also be excluded, the International Olympic Committee said.
“The disturbing pattern of use associated with this performance-enhancing drug appears to be one more example of growing practice in sport in which coaches ask for, physicians prescribe, and athletes use pharmaceuticals not for their primary objective of health and wellness but to enhance athletic performance”, said Tygart.
“The fight against doping in sport seems woefully inadequate and the current system is unfit for objective – an unfortunate situation for which WADA, as the primary agency in this respect, must accept a major part of the responsibility”.
In the light of the above, the Executive Board chose to withdraw the appointment of the Russian Technical Official from the Rio2016 Olympic Games.
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That has led to over four tests done on the athletes in the last three weeks during their training at Eldoret.
