At least 85 athletes from Russian team banned
At least 85 athletes from the 387-strong Russian Olympic team announced last week have so far been barred from the Rio Games in connection with the country’s doping scandal.
International federations in canoeing and modern pentathlon ruled out seven on Tuesday, including an Olympic gold medallist, following earlier rulings in swimming and rowing. Some appeals are likely.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media that Putin had discussed the doping issue with his national security council.
“The topic of the recent International Olympic Committee ruling relating to Russian athletes was raised ahead of Putin’s planned meeting tomorrow with the Russian Olympic team,” Peskov was quoted as saying.
The vast majority of the Russian athletes who miss out are in track and field, where 67 athletes were ruled out when a ban on the Russian team was upheld at the Court of Arbitration for Sport last week.
More are falling foul of new rules imposed in the wake of the country’s doping scandal.
While Russia avoided a blanket ban from the International Olympic Committee, it has lost several medal contenders to new IOC rules imposed Sunday banning Russia from entering athletes who previously doped.
Alexander Dyachenko, an Olympic champion in 2012, was among five canoeists ruled out after being named in a recent report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren alleging a state-sponsored doping coverup.
Dyachenko won gold in the men’s double kayak 200 metres at the 2012 London Games.
The four other banned canoeists are Alexei Korovashkov – a 2012 bronze medallist in the C2 1,000 metres event – Andrei Kraitor, Elena Anyushina and Nataliya Podolskaya.
The ICF also said that Russia would not be allowed to enter boats in four events in which the excluded athletes would have raced.
Meanwhile, the International Modern Pentathlon Union named the two Russians it had suspended as Maxim Kustov and Ilya Frolov, saying they are both featured in the McLaren report.
Three Russian rowers have also been excluded. Ivan Podshivalov and Anastasia Karabelshchikova were excluded because they previously served doping bans, while Ivan Balandin from Russia’s men’s eight was implicated in the McLaren report, World Rowing said.
Meanwhile, volleyball player Alexander Markin told local media he had been dropped due to a positive test earlier this year for the banned substance meldonium, even though he had not been banned.
Two-time world champion wrestler Viktor Lebedev was ineligible because he was given a doping ban in 2006.