Russia heads to Rio

A depleted Russian team departed for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro yesterday, missing dozens of athletes who were excluded amid the country’s doping scandal.

Team members left on a charter flight from Moscow’s Sheremetevo airport to Brazil, a day after an emotional farewell ceremony with Russian President Vladimir

Putin in the Kremlin. More than 100 athletes from what was originally a 387-strong team have been barred from competing in Rio by international sports federations under sanctions that most Russian athletes consider unfair.

“We’re after medals, that’s it,” handball player Anna Sen said as she prepared to board the flight. “We need to fight for those athletes who were disqualified.” Volleyball player Sergei

Tetyukhin, a four-time Olympic medalist, will be Russia’s flagbearer for the opening ceremony in Rio, according to pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva.

Isinbayeva, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, has become a de facto spokeswoman for Russian athletes excluded from the Olympics and gave a tearful address to the team in the Kremlin on Wednesday.

“Today, as never before, we need to stay united and become a family,” the 40-year-old Tetyukhin said, ignoring what he called “provocations addressed at our team and our mighty country.”

No track and field athletes were among the contingent heading for Rio, since the entire track team is banned from competing, except for a single U.S.-based long jumper, following revelations of widespread doping.

The track team did, however, attend the ceremonial farewell with Putin on Wednesday, when the Russian president branded restrictions on Russia as “pure discrimination.”

Hours after the plane carrying the Russian team took off, the track and field team gathered across town in a small stadium for what was billed as an Olympic consolation event.

World champions competed against regional-level athletes in front of around 150 spectators in an event hastily organized after the track team’s ban was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last week.

Isinbayeva watched from the sidelines, vowing defiance and legal action.

“You can’t break Russians,” she said. “People have tried to break us down, but it’s never worked . . . What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”

She added that she plans to file another appeal to CAS and also the European Court of Human Rights.

While Russia avoided a blanket ban from the games at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee board on Sunday, the IOC imposed new restrictions on Russia. International sports federations must now remove any athlete previously banned for doping or who was implicated in last week’s McLaren report alleging a mass cover up of failed drug tests.

Some federations have taken a tough line, with exclusions of much of Russia’s team from events such as rowing, canoeing and swimming. Other sports, such as judo and tennis, have allowed the entire Russian team to compete in their sport. These rulings must still be ratified by the CAS.

Sager staying home

Craig Sager’s fight with leuke- mia will prevent the basketball sideline reporter form covering the Rio Olympics for NBC.

NBC said in a statement that the 65-year-old Sager is preparing for a third bone marrow transplant at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Sager was first diagnosed with leukemia in 2014 and announced in March that he was no longer in remission.

IOC member ousted

South Korea’s Moon Dae-sung has been suspended as a member of the International Olympic Committee over allegations that he plagiarized his doctoral thesis.

The IOC said that Moon’s membership will be suspended until South Korea’s Supreme Court reaches a verdict over his dispute with a Seoul university, which stripped him of his degree in 2014 after concluding that he stole from the works of another researcher.

A former taekwondo Olympic champion, Moon’s eightyear term as an IOC member is due to end after this year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.