IOC’s final ruling on Russian athletes goes down to wire

All three were absent from the afternoon programme and International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams later acknowledged they have started to vet the more than 250 Russian athletes in Rio, all of whom have already been cleared by the various sports federations and rubber-stamped by a Court of Arbitration for Sport arbitrator. Overall, more than 100 Russians have been excluded, including 67 in track and field.

“Some global federations… have now confirmed this fact: majority do not have any reason not to admit Russian team and athletes”, Zhukov added.

Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov blasted “discrimination” against athletes who have been banned as a result of the McLaren report, despite not failing drugs tests.

Bach s condemnation of WADA escalates a feud between the Olympics and anti-doping bodies which has broken out in the final days before the Rio Games. “The majority of the sports have been admitted in full”.

The respective governing bodies of athletics and weightlifting, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the International Weightlifting Federation, had already decided that no Russian athletes will take part in their sports during the Games.

Members voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution backing the IOC’s decision not to impose a blanket ban on Russia’s athletes.

Reedie said he had received assurances from officials at high levels of the Russian Federation government that they accept they have a problem and need to fix it.

Underling the deep split between Olympic leaders and anti-doping officials, Bach said it was WADA – not the IOC – that was responsible for doping problems in Russian Federation.

The IOC opted not to ban all Russian athletes from the Rio Olympics after revelations of a wide state-backed doping programme across many sports.

“Some 200 Russian athletes will take part in the opening ceremony of the Games”, Kazikov said.

Bach appealed to the assembly to support the International Olympic Committee executive board’s decision not to ban all Russians from the Rio Games, which open on Friday.

But CAS ruled the procedures surrounding her first whereabouts failure in 2015 had not been followed correctly.

They were asking for immediate approval to compete, which they have not been granted, but sport’s highest court has ruled against the IOC’s attempt to bar Russian Federation from entering any athlete who has been sanctioned before.

“The basic and hard question we had to answer is – can you hold any athlete responsible for the wrongdoing of the government of his or her country?” “I think this is absolutely unfair”.

Having rejected calls from athletes’ groups and the anti-doping community for a blanket ban for Russia, IOC president Thomas Bach has repeatedly had to defend his compromise between collective responsibility for Russia’s flagrant cheating and each athletes’ right to justice. The hosts got off to a disappointing start with 0-0 draw against South Africa, a result that prompted loud jeers by some of the home fans.

“In a time when the country is divided politically, economically and socially, the transformation of Rio de Janeiro is truly historic.