Putin slams bias toward athletes

Russian leader greets team at Kremlin send-off ceremony

Russian President Vladimir Putin hit out at “discrimination” against the country’s banned track and field athletes at a Kremlin send-off ceremony Wednesday for its depleted Olympic team.

Fencers, triathletes and table tennis players became the latest team of Russians to be cleared to compete in the Olympics by the governing bodies of their sports ahead of the Moscow ceremony, but the IAAF rejected a bid by the bulk of the track and field team to be reinstated.

More than 100 Russians from the 387-strong Olympic team have been banned so far from going to Rio de Janeiro.

“We can’t accept indiscriminate disqualification of our athletes with an absolutely clean doping history,” Putin said. “We cannot and will not accept what in fact is pure discrimination.”

Putin said the athletes banned from the Olympics were victims of a campaign to present Russian sports in a bad light. He spoke with two-time Olympic pole-vaulting champion Yelena Isinbayeva, the most high-profile of the 67 track and field athletes banned from the games, standing beside him.

Fighting back tears, Isinbayeva told Rio-bound Russian athletes: “Show them what you’re able to do — for yourself and for us too.”

As the athletes walked across Red Square to meet Putin, some posed for selfies with Vitaly Mutko, whose sports ministry was accused by the World Anti-Doping Agency of orchestrating the doping cover-up.

Center Anderson Varejao n will miss the Olympics for host Brazil because of a herniated disk in his lower back. The Warriors announced the injury Wednesday and said that Varejao should be ready for the start of training camp but will not be healthy enough to play in the Olympics. Varejao recently experienced back pain while training with the Brazilian National Team and returned to California to be examined by Dr. Robert Watkins earlier this week.

The IOC will launch n its new Olympic Channel next month following the closing ceremony of the Rio Games. The digital channel, which will operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, will go live on Sunday, Aug. 21, right after the ceremony, the International Olympic Committee announced. The Madrid-based channel is designed to promote Olympics sports between each games and engage with young audiences. It will provide a mix of live sports coverage, historic Olympic footage from the archives, news programming and highlights.