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IOC panel to decide which Russians can compete
RIO DE JANEIRO: The International Olympic Committee has said a three-member panel will make the “final decision” on which Russian athletes can compete in the Rio
RIO DE JANEIRO: The International Olympic Committee has said a three-member panel will make the “final decision” on which Russian athletes can compete in the Rio Olympics, set to begin in less than a week.
The panel will examine each case individually and make the “final decision” before Friday, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said late on Saturday.
A ban on individual Russian athletes followed a report by Canadian l awyer Richard McLaren for the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) stating that Russian doping of athletes had been organized by the sports ministry and aided by the Russian secret service at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Rejecting calls for a blanket ban on Russia, the IOC decided on July 24 that individual sports federations should investigate athletes implicated in the report and decide who should be excluded.
So far, at least 117 individuals from the 387 that the Russian Olympic Committee wanted to enter have been excluded.
Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said Saturday he expected 266 athletes to compete. Boxing, golf, gymnastics and taekwondo federations have yet to report their decisions.
The three-member panel is made up of Ugur Erdener, president of World Archery and head of the IOC medical and scientific commission, Claudia Bockel of the IOC athletes commission, and Spanish IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch.
RIO ‘WILL NOT BE CLEAN’ WADA
President Craig Reedie, who called for a complete ban on Russian athletes, is to address the IOC meeting on Sunday.
The CAS has already rejected an appeal by 67 Russian athletes against a ban ordered by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) before the IOC sanctions.
Athletics was the first sport touched by the doping controversy. Russian doping whistleblower Vitaly Stepanov told a Brazilian newspaper that the Rio Olympics “will not be clean,” and blasted the IOC for not banning Russia. Stepanov, who with his 800m runner wife Yuliya Stepanova, gave details of the state-run doping programme to a German documentary in 2014, said efforts to clean up sport had failed.
“It has always been the case in the Olympics. There has never been a clean Olympics and there is no reason to believe that Rio will be clean,” he said.
“Unfortunately, doped athletes will be competing,” said the former Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) official, now living in hiding in the United States with his wife.
