Doping investigator faces ‘deluge of requests’ on Russians

An International Olympic Committee (IOC) panel of three will have the final say on which Russian athletes can compete at the Rio Olympic Games.

The IOC has set up a special three-person panel to make a final ruling on which individual Russian athletes are allowed to compete in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Pressure for the full sanction followed a World Anti-Doping Agency report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren that accused Russia’s sports ministry of overseeing a vast doping conspiracy involving the country’s summer and winter sports athletes.

All of Russia’s weightlifters were banned from the Rio Olympics on Friday for doping for what the global federation called “extremely shocking” results that brought the sport into “disrepute”.

Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko on Saturday said that he expects 266 athletes from the European nation to be cleared for the Games in Brazil, which start on Friday. Some have filed appeals against their bans.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has rejected criticism of his handling of the Russian Federation drugs scandal.

Putin in his in his address on Wednesday in Moscow to 150 athletes – some of them would go to Rio and the others not – alleged that a targeted campaign against Russian athletes have made them ‘the victims of notorious double standards, the principle of collective responsibility and a cancellation of the presumption of innocence, which are incompatible with sport, or with justice, elementary legal norms’.

“The IOC report isn’t responsible for the fact that the information, which was presented to WADA several years ago, did not lead to any action”, he said, adding that the accreditation of anti-doping laboratories also not among the IOC’s responsibilities.

McLaren said his mandate has been extended to finish the investigation and “identify any further athletes that might have benefited from such manipulation to hide positive doping tests”.

“The disturbing pattern of use associated with this performance-enhancing drug appears to be one more example of growing practice in sport in which coaches ask for, physicians prescribe, and athletes use pharmaceuticals not for their primary objective of health and wellness but to enhance athletic performance”, said Usada chief executive Travis Tygart in a statement.

Usada said meldonium was easily accessible to Russia athletes because it was available over the counter in Russian pharmacies.

Bach also gave an upbeat assessment of Rio’s readiness for the games. “There has never been a clean Olympics and there is no reason to believe that Rio will be clean”, he told O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper.

“It’s coming together”, Bach said.

“There will be, as always be some last-minute challenges”, said Bach.