IOC panel to decide which Russians can compete in Rio

Bach was peppered with questions about the International Olympic Committee’s handling of the allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia, including the decision to give international sports federations the power to decide which Russian athletes should be cleared to compete.

There is already a test to pick up if athletes are directly injecting EPO, the substance at the heart of the Lance Armstrong doping scandal in cycling.

The Australian team said they evacuated their building at the Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro because of a fire in the basement on Friday, one week before the Games open.

RIO DE JANEIRO Russian swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev have launched an appeal against the ruling banning them from next month’s Rio Olympic Games even though they have never failed a doping test. All but one track and field team members were banned by their federation.

In a letter to the IOC, Stepanova and her husband Vitaly, said the middle-distance runner had earned the right to compete after having been cleared by the world athletics federation, the IAAF, and praised for her actions.

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Friday that, so far, 272 of the country’s athletes had been cleared by global federations, out of an original team of 387.

“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.

A group of 10 athletes from South Sudan, Syria, Congo and Ethiopia will compete in Rio under the Olympic flag.

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.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, son of the seventh president of the IOC, and IOC Athletes’ Commission Chair Claudia Bokel were also included in the commission.

“My office has been inundated with requests for information on individual athletes”, McLaren said in a statement released late Friday from London, Ontario. Other federations may not be as punitive, as they will “carry out an individual analysis of each Russian athlete’s anti-doping record – taking into account only reliable, adequate global tests”.

Four other Russian lifters were named in the McLaren report. “Before the Games start, and then after the Olympic Games, there will be more time to carefully analyze the whole situation, and I would advise everybody… to study this situation with a certain distance and not under this moment of very emotional and passionate debates”, Bach said. The IOC specified that national anti-doping evidence is insufficient proof, and that an worldwide test and thorough analysis must be conducted. “I hope all refugee athletes continue their training as the Olympic committee and the whole worldwide society provide them the supports they need”.