IOC bans 118 Russian athletes from Rio Games

‘The leadership of the (Greek) Olympic team in Rio announces the positive first sample of a member of the team during drugs testing conducted in early July in Athens, ‘ the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) said when referring to the unnamed competitor.

Russian whistleblower Yulia Stepanova will not appeal against her ban from the Rio Olympics, saying on Friday she was “hugely sad and heartbroken” that the International Olympic Committee had not supported her and used its discretion to allow her to run as an independent athlete.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Thursday that the exclusion of Anastasia Karabelshikova and Ivan Podshivalov over a past doping sanction, as called for by the International Olympic Committee, was “unenforceable”.

Critics had called for the entire team to be banned to show systematic cheating is unacceptable.

Two-time road cycling medalist at the London Olympics Olga Zabelinskaya has been admitted to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games opening on Friday, secretary general of the Russian Cycling Federation Yuri Kucheryavy told TASS. Its track-and-field athletes and weightlifters are banned over doping offences.

Zhukov told reporters that no team has been drug tested as much as Russian Federation. “Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko in a statement expressed his gratitude to the IOC.He said” It was objective and taken in the interest of world sport and unity of the Olympic family. According to figures available at the Team GB Media Centre, Great Britain and Northern Ireland are sending 366 competitors to the Rio games, of whom 164 are female and 202 are male.

World Anti-Doping Agency’s former president, Dick Pound, who heads the commission into corruption and doping in athletics, at a news conference in Unterschleissheim near Munich, January 14, 2016.

Bach also defended the IOC’s decision not to take the “nuclear option” of issuing a blanket ban on Russian athletes at the Games, stating that would be unfair to clean athletes within the country.

The Russian delegation, battling allegations of state-backed doping, got only lukewarm applause when they entered the Maracana stadium.

The final decision on Efimova’s involvement will be made swimming’s governing body FINA.