Banned Russians quietly added back to Olympic swimming

The decision, on the eve of the opening ceremony, could invite a dozen more appeals against the ban from Russian competitors, according to the tribunal’s chief, and underlines Russian arguments that the ban lacks legal justification.

Meldonium was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances from January 1, but some positive tests were later overturned after the agency said there was a lack of clear scientific evidence about how long it takes for the drug to be excreted from the body.

“I’m going to the Olympics”, Efimova, the 24-year-old breaststroke world champion and 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, said on Instagram. “I couldn’t be more proud and relieved”.

Yuliya Stepanova, the Russian 800m runner who lifted the lid on systematic doping and corruption in Russian athletics, has decided not to launch a final appeal against her ban from competing in the Rio Olympics.

Efimova, like others, took her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which wrestled with a welter of appeals right up until Friday’s opening ceremony in the confusion that followed the International Olympic Committee’s refusal to issue a blanket ban of Russian Federation.

Efimova has been a flashpoint in the Russian doping scandal because she not only served a 16-month suspension for doping, she tested positive again this year for the now-banned substance meldonium.

However, CAS outlawed that decision yesterday, potentially reopening a way in for her.

“As a result, we will not file an appeal to CAS”.

But with about 110 athletes cut from the Russian entry of 389, the squad in Rio will be Russia’s smallest at an Olympics in the past century. Some have already been taken away because of doping offences however.

The build-up to the Rio Games has been overshadowed by revelations of widespread state-sponsored doping in Russian Federation.

But Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov has protested that his country has “faced” discrimination in the handling of the sanctions.

The Lausanne-based court said barring them from the Games “does not respect the athletes’ right of natural justice”.