Russia braces for IOC Rio Games ruling after athletes banned
MOSCOW: Russia insisted on Friday it expects to avoid a blanket ban from the IOC on its competitors at the Rio Olympics despite its track and field squad losing an appeal over a suspension for state-sponsored doping.
“All sportsmen who have not been convicted or are not under suspicion of doping should have the right to compete,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“That is the decision we are counting on.”
The International Olympic Committee’s executive board are to hold a conference call on Sunday to discuss banning Russia from the Rio Games starting on August 5.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday ruled against Russia’s athletes in a decision seen as a key indicator as the IOC debates whether to kick out the whole Russian team. The IOC is facing international pressure to act tough on Russia and ban the entire team over bombshell revelations of a state-run doping system that has seen the country cheat its way to victory.
Fourteen national anti-doping agencies including the United States, Canada and Germany sent a joint letter to IOC President Thomas Bach on Thursday urging him to ban Russia from Rio.
Officials in Moscow have slammed the decision by CAS to reject its appeal against a ban from the world athletics body IAAF, calling it part of a broader political campaign by the West against Russia.
The suspension of the track and field team already means that star athletes like pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and hurdler Sergey Shubenkov will not be in Rio. Isinbayeva — who has threatened to call time on her career over the ban — slammed the CAS ruling as a “funeral for athletics.”
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko — who has clung on despite the scandal — said Moscow now hopes the IOC will defer to individual international sporting federations to decide whether other Russian squads can compete.
‘COLD WAR’ The CAS ruling has been the focus of Olympic attention since an independent WADA report this week said Russia ran a “state-dictated failsafe system” of drug cheating in 30 sports at the 2014 Sochi Games and other major events.
But Russia has found support from some international sports bodies, with the International Judo Federation (IJF) insisting all clean athletes should be allowed to take part in Rio. “We hope that by allowing participation of Russian athletes in Rio 2016, we will send out a positive message to all the young people who deserve to be given examples of friendship instead of examples of Cold War,” said IJF President Marius Vizer.