IOC BOARD SET TO REVIEW FINAL PREPARATIONS, RUSSIA DOPING

Rio de Janeiro, July 30: Less than a week before the opening of the Olympics, IOC leaders will meet in Rio de Janeiro this weekend to review the final preparations for the games and deal with the fallout from the doping scandal that has led to the exclusion of more than 100 Russian athletes.

The IOC’s ruling executive board opens a two- day meeting on Saturday, its last formal gathering

Moscow, Russia’s sports minister said on Saturday that the national team to compete in the Rio Olympics starting next week so far has 266 competitors, although decisions were still pending on several athletes.

“As of this morning I can say that we will represent 29 disciplines out of 34, before next Friday night’s opening ceremony at the Maracana Stadium.

The meeting comes less than a week after the IOC board decided not to ban Russia’s entire team from the games because of statesponsored doping. Rejecting calls by more than a dozen anti- doping agencies for a complete ban on Russia, the IOC left it to individual sports federations to vet which athletes could compete or not.— AP

with 266 people,” minister Vitaly Mutko said in an interview with sports channel Match- TV.

Besides 67 track and field athletes banned by the IAAF over revelations of a state- run doping scheme, dozens more have been told not to compete in Brazil, including swimmers, rowers, and wrestlers.