Russian swimmers banned from Rio Olympics

“I think what the International Olympic Committee didn’t do is spend enough time to understand how big the problem is in Russia and how much covering up is happening in Russian sports”, he said.

As a result, 2008 Olympic silver and 2012 bronze medalist Nikita Lobintsev, Vladimir Morozov and Daria Ustinova have all been banned from the Olympics.

It’s a conclusion that both the World Anti-Doping Agency and track’s governing body, the IAAF, disagree with; both recommended Stepanova be allowed to compete in Rio.

“An athlete should not suffer and should not be sanctioned for a system in which he was not implicated”, Bach said Sunday. After receiving more information about Russian sports as a whole, the International Olympic Committee opted against a ban of the entire Russian team.

You can not guarantee that any Russian athlete that competes in Rio will be clean even if they have been tested internationally. Eventually they took their story to investigative journalist Hajo Seppelt, whose explosive 2014 documentary set in motion the chain of events that led to Richard McLaren’s report into Russia’s state-sponsored doping programme.

The 24-year-old also tested positive for Meldonium this year but FINA dropped charges against her earlier in July and said she was free to compete. They released a statement yesterday outlining what must be done by the Russian team.

Still, the International Olympic Committee said Russians no longer benefit from a presumption of innocence and now face rigorous eligibility standards.

The IOC also rejected the application by Russian whistleblower Yulia Stepanova, an 800-meter runner and former doper who helped expose the doping scandal, to compete under a neutral flag at the games.

“The onus now remains with the IOC to ensure that the International Federations fully execute their authority and the process that has been identified”.

But it also said Stepanova could not compete because there was no provision for her to do so under the Olympic Charter and introduced a new rule that prevented any Russian athlete who had previously served a ban from competing.

John Coates, President of the AOC and an IOC Vice President has spent the last three days advising the IOC on the legal aspects of today’s decision in his capacity as Chair of the IOC Legal Affairs Commission.

“The WADA Independent Person (“McLaren”) report has shown that anti-doping rules, i.e. the FINA Doping Control (DC) Rules and the WADA Code were not correctly implemented in Russia, i.e. within the jurisdiction of the Russian Swimming Federation”.