Russian stars who could miss the Rio Olympics

International Olympic Committee (IOC) members were set for emergency talks Tuesday to decide Russia’s status for the Rio Olympics after an investigation found rampant state-run doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and other events.

The decision was complicated by the fact that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Tuesday began a hearing in Geneva into appeals from 68 Russian track and field athletes banned from competing in Rio by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) last month.

But Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko was barred from attending the Games and the International Olympic Committee ordered a disciplinary commission to look into his ministry’s role in what a report called a “state-dictated failsafe system” if drug cheating.

Russia’s deputy minister of sports, Yuri Nagornykh, who was also part of Russia’s Olympic Committee, would direct workers at the Moscow lab of which positive samples to send through to be reported to WADA and which to hold back.

The executive ordered a re-analysis of all samples by Russian athletes taken at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and action against the sports ministry.

The Mc Laren report published this week detailed widespread doping among Russian sportsmen and women that was covered up at the highest level.

At Sochi, the FSB helped Rodchenkov’s staff destroy supposedly tamper-proof urine samples that would have seen a Russian athlete caught doping and swapping them for clean ones, according to the report.

In China, the state-owned Global Times newspaper took the view that “Banning Russia will tarnish Olympic spirit”. And for every anti-doping agency and athlete group calling for a full ban in the name of clean athletes, there’s seemingly another sports organization or leader urging restraint.

“The most important for me is that our national Olympic team will go to the [Rio] Olympics”, he said.

(IOC) will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice. The foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told his U.S. counterpart John Kerry that the USA anti-doping agency’s call to ban the country from the Olympics was an “anti-Russian” provocation.

The head of track and field in Europe says profound changes are required in Russian Federation before sports events can “confidently welcome” competitors from the doping-tarnished nation.

The letter called for the IOC to act by next Tuesday to ensure that Russia’s Olympic Committee and sports federations will not be allowed in Rio de Janeiro, where the games start on August 5.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, was circulated by USA and Canadian anti-doping authorities before the release on Monday of a World Anti-Doping Agency report which accused top Russian officials of covering up hundreds of doping cases.

President Vladimir Putin made the Sochi Games a showcase event and spent more than $50 billion for staging the Games. The International Gymnastics Federation said it was also opposed to a blanket ban.

The 34-year-old triple world champion has been one of the most outspoken critics of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) which has banned Russia due to the country’s doping scandal.

In this respect, the IOC will have to take the CAS decision on 21 July 2016 concerning the IAAF rules into consideration, as well as the World Anti-Doping Code and the Olympic Charter. This will include proposals to clarify and increase transparency of the respective responsibilities in the fight against doping; the accreditation and supervision procedures of WADA accredited laboratories; and the WADA “International Standards for Laboratories” (ISL).The IOC is reinforcing the request issued by the Olympic Summit on 17 October 2015 to make the entire anti-doping system independent from sports organisations.