Russia’s track and field team was already banned from Rio over state-sponsored doping, but its Olympic Committee last week optimistically named a 387-strong squad for the Games. “We have taken swift action and removed all offending athletes where doping evidence exists”, said ICF secretary general Simon Toulson. “We can not and will not accept what in fact is pure discrimination”.
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It may appear unfair that the formerly disqualified Americans are in Rio and Russians, some with less serious past violations, some simply captured by the blanket ban in athletics, are kept out.
“Understanding the huge impact this scandal has on world sports, the clean Russian athletes nonetheless should have a chance just like other clean athletes from any other country”. “This current situation has gone beyond the legal field now and has even gone beyond the bounds of common sense”.
The Russian president added: “This is a blow to the entire sporting world and to the Olympic Games”.
The International Canoe Federation was another sport to block several Russians, in its case five sprint canoeists, including London 2012 men’s K2 champion Alexander Dyachenko, and World Sailing ruled out one athlete but allowed Russia to call in a reserve.
At least one federation could allow Russians implicated in the report to compete due to fears that they could be sued, the Guardian reported.
Richard McLaren’s report – commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency – accused Russian Federation of operating a state-sponsored doping programme from 2011 to 2015.
On Tuesday, the federation said that 17 entered rowers and two of the coxes did not meet conditions to take part but six Russian rowers were cleared for Rio.
FISA said that those banned were “not at all considered to have participated in doping” but were being excluded as they “do not meet the conditions established by the International Olympic Committee”.
Mutko listed “great figures such as (pole vault champion Yelena) Isinbayeva who has an impeccable reputation” and the “new generation” of high jumper Mariya Kuchina and sprint hurdler Sergey Shubenkov as examples of athletes “who have sacrificed years of training to compete at the Olympic Games in Rio”.
The IAAF has extended last year’s suspension of the Russian federation and denied entry requests from 67 Russian athletes for Rio, rulings which have been upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Individual sports federations were given the task of deciding which athletes should be cleared to compete in Rio by the International Olympic Committee on Sunday.
The IOC has received praise from Russian Federation but stinging criticism from elsewhere for failing to impose a total ban on the country over shocking evidence of a state-organised system to cheat. Most are not formally accused of doping but failed to meet International Olympic Committee standards that now force them to prove they are clean.
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On this occasion, the UNPA, in partnership with the IOC and the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), issued a series of brightly coloured stamps depicting the Olympic rings and the slogan in three languages: “Sport for peace”, “Le sport pour la paix” and “Sport für den Frieden”.
