IOC: Athletes cleared for Rio will compete under Russian flag

In Nairobi, Kenyan officials said they would cooperate fully with the IOC’s stipulation. Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko made a veiled threat of a boycott.

“Out of the several thousand samples taken from Russian athletes in and out of competition over this period, only three turned out to be positive, including one in athletics, for substances other than (recently banned) meldonium”, which was found in 49 samples, he said.

Athletes from Russian Federation and Kenya must endure stringent checks before being permitted to compete in the Rio games after the International Olympic Committee ruled the countries were “non-compliant” with global anti-doping regulations.

“It has to be more transparent”, said IOC President Thomas Bach.

Athletics Kenya head Jackson Tuwei says “what is this other business of them going overseas?” What is the problem?

Bach insisted that Russian Federation would have to compete under its own flag at Rio, because only those who have no National Olympic Committee to represent are able to do so independently.

Stepanova has been relocated to Canada but the 29-year-old middle-distance runner had hoped to qualify for and compete in Rio under the International Olympic Committee flag.

Last week, the track and field governing body ruled that the disqualification of the Russian Federation won’t be lifted, but saying the clean athletes would be able to compete in Rio under a neutral, white flag. But Bach did rule out any blanket ban for Russia’s Olympic Committee.

The IAAF will decide whether Russian Federation has done enough to have the ban overturned at a meeting in Vienna on Friday.

The Montreal-based agency has now declared four countries’ anti-doping agencies non-compliant with the Code but two of those, Mexico and Spain, are for largely administrative and legal reasons that are in the process of being rectified.

Last week the IAAF discussed the possibility of some Russian track and field athletes being allowed to compete under a neutral flag if they met certain criteria, but the International Olympic Committee rejected that notion.

The statement says “individual athletes in Russian Federation are willing to demonstrate their innocence and prove they are clean”.

Bach emphasized with regard to Russia competing in Rio that all its athletes going there are part of the Russian Olympic Committee. Of course it’s good that this leaves us a chance.

She again blasted the IAAF ruling to ban the entire Russian track and field team – not discriminating between those caught using doping and clean athletes – from competing as “outright discrimination”.

“We consider it unfair on the vast majority of our athletes who have never doped and have not violated any criteria”, Zhukov told the meeting.

Russian officials have asked for clarification on exactly how its track and field athletes can qualify for exemptions to compete in Rio. This hour On Point, sports doping, Rio, and the future of the Olympics.

The Olympic body is expected to shortly release a statement at a news conference with IOC President Thomas Bach.

Darya Klishina from Russia competes in the women’s long jump event at the National track and field championships at a stadium in Cheboksary, Russia, Tuesday, June 21, 2016.

The IAAF’s move was cheered by clean athletes and pretty much everyone who supports transparency in sport, and the International Olympic Committee said on Saturday it “fully respects” the ruling.

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) – repeatedly praised by Bach – has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Earlier this year, the New York Times detailed the ways in which Russia’s state-sponsored athletic association allegedly helped athletes elude doping rules at the Sochi Games in 2014. Putin clearly hoped the International Olympic Committee would let some Russians compete: On Tuesday, his press secretary Dmitri Peskov said nobody was “interested in creating such a precedent” as a blanket ban.

The Duma said it counts on the IOC to come up with an “objective decision” that “will not put into question the ideals and goals of the Olympic movement”.

Isinbayeva’s situation contrasts with that of whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova, whose evidence effectively led to the revelations of systematic doping within Russian track and field.

An umbrella meeting of some of the most powerful people in global sports has “unanimously agreed” to respect the decision by track and field’s governing body to ban Russia’s track and field athletes from the upcoming Summer Olympics – but it also left open the possibility that some of those athletes could be cleared to compete in Rio.

In the world of judo, different opinions are the case if Russian athletes should be in Rio at all.

“We will have some interesting debate”.