Russian Federation to appeal blanket ban on weightlifters for Olympics

United States and European Union sanctions on Russia following Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, the present war of words on NATO’s expansion eastwards with the current controversy on the banning of Russian athletes from the Rio Olympics resonates with events in the days of the Cold War which is thought to have ended 27 years ago with the fall of the Berlin Wall. The IOC is still in shock over attacks for not ordering a blanket ban on Russian athletes following an inquiry by Canadian lawyer Richard McLean for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko on Thursday at a competition held for the athletes who have been banned from the Rio Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says a three-person panel will have the final say on which Russian athletes can compete at the Rio Games. But it ordered all individual sports federations to apply new criteria to decide which athletes could be allowed to compete.

So far, at least 117 individuals from the 387 that the Russian Olympic Committee wanted to enter have been excluded.

CAS said the appeals were filed against the International Olympic Committee and FINA. Sports sources told AFP that the 24-year-old had gone to the tribunal, which has special courts set up in Rio to hear such cases.

“The IOC is not responsible for the timing of the McLaren report”, Bach said.

Lobintsev and U.S.-based Morozov were part of Russia’s bronze-medal winning 4x100m freestyle team at the London 2012 Games, while Lobintsev also won a silver medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay at Beijing 2008.

Rio’s Olympics that open this Friday and run through August 21 are the first to include a team entirely of refugees, which includes ten athletes from four countries who will compete under the Olympic flag.

Olympic organisers had anxious that the new 16-km line might not be ready in time for the opening of the games on Friday, as construction was plagued by constant delays, leading to critical congestion on city streets.

It would appear that Athletics Kenya did not learn from this close shave from its abortive attempt to reinstate its chief executive Isaac Mwangi, who had been accused by two athletes, who failed drugs tests, of seeking bribes to reduce their doping suspensions.

South Korean gymnast Lee Go-im will miss next month’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after fracturing her left arm during practice at an Olympic venue.