International Olympic Committee sets up 3-person panel to rule on Russian entries

Meanwhile, the IOC has said a three-member IOC panel will have the final say on which Russian athletes can compete at the Rio Games, reviewing all decisions taken by the global federations.

The IOC’s executive board met this weekend to assess final preparations in the host city and also rule on the process for approving Russian athletes put forward by their sports’ global federations (IFs).

Following the commission’s report last week, WADA recommended the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and all international sports federations ban Russian athletes from all international sports competitions, including Rio 2016.

“Unfortunately, doped athletes will be competing”, said the former Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) official, now living in hiding in the United States with his wife.

More than 250 Russian athletes from the original team of 387 have so far been cleared to compete at the Olympics.

The panel will have to make its ruling before the opening ceremony, just six days away.

“‘I don’t think that this in the end will be damaging because people will realize we have to take this decision now”, Bach said.

“My office has been inundated with requests for information on individual athletes”, McLaren said in a statement released late Friday from London, Ontario.

The three-member panel is made up of Ugur Erdener, president of World Archery and head of the IOC medical and scientific commission, Claudia Bockel of the IOC athletes commission, and Spanish IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Adams said the panel will review every athlete cleared by the federations, but would not reopen the cases of those who have been barred.

“And then it’s up to the panel to decide if they accept or not for each individual athlete”.

The panel will receive independent advice from the Court of Arbitration for Sport before making its decisions.

Saturday’s meeting came less than a week after the International Olympic Committee board decided not to ban Russia’s entire team from the games because of state-sponsored doping.

The two swimmers were suspended after they were named in relation to the “disappearing positives” revelations – false reporting of positive samples – in a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-led independent report into doping in Russian Federation.

An athlete competes in a track and field event held by Russia’s athletics federation for athletes banned from the Rio Olympics. Russia’s eight-member weightlifting team was kicked out of the games on Friday for what the worldwide federation called “extremely shocking” doping results that brought the sport into “disrepute”.

Last week, the International Olympic Committee was widely criticised for declining to impose a blanket ban on Russian Federation, despite revelations of state-backed doping.

The governing body for each sport is to check athletes, who can also appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS).

Rio’s preparations, meanwhile, remain clouded on several fronts, including budget cuts, water pollution, slow ticket sales, and concerns over crime and the Zika virus. The games come with the suspended president awaiting an impeachment trial and the country gripped by a severe recession.

Speaking at a news conference five days before the opening of the games, Bach said a total ban on Russian Federation “would not be justifiable” on either moral or legal grounds.