Martin Gillingham: IOC must decide whether it wants a clean Olympics

With its decision, the court was “absolutely violating the rights of clean athletes, creating a precedent of collective responsibility”, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said in comments televised on state channels.

The decision made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport could possibly lead to the International Olympic Committee deciding to ban the whole Russian team.

“The door is open for the International Olympic Committee to decide, to determine even on a case-by-case principle whether these athletes are eligible or not”, CAS general secretary Mattieu Reeb told reporters outside the court headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Russian officials were dismayed at the verdict, with a government spokesman saying that tarring all Russian athletes with the same brush “is hardly acceptable”.

Narromine product and three-time Olympian Melinda Gainsford-Taylor has backed the calls for Russian Federation to be banned from the upcoming Rio Olympics.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has rejected an appeal by 68 Russian track and field athletes to overturn their ban for the games.

“However, I am concerned and deeply saddened by the possibility that, in the event Russian athletes are banned from participating in the Olympics, persons not culpable would be punished as well as those who are guilty”.

“The new reanalysis once again shows the commitment of the IOC in the fight against doping”, IOC President Thomas Bach said.

IPC president Sir Philip Craven said: “McLaren’s findings are of serious concern for everyone committed to clean and honest sport”. “It is our federation’s instinctive desire to include, not exclude”.

“In my view, it’s a subjective decision, somewhat political and one with no legal basis”, he told the TASS news agency.

The CAS on Thursday rejected Russia’s appeal over the Olympics ban on the country’s athletes caused by the recent doping scandal.

The Russian flag flies next to the Olympic rings at the closing ceremony of the Sochi games in 2014.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a meeting in the Strategic Initiatives Agency in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, July 21, 2016.

Russia’s track and field team has already been banned from Rio by governing body IAAF. On June 17, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) council ruled to extend the suspension of the All-Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF) from all international tournaments, including the 2016 Olympic Games.

The IPC said it expects to announce its decision on whether to suspend Russian Federation the week commencing August 1.

While he had not received much information on the work of the commission, which was only set up at the International Olympic Committee executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Tuesday night.

“We believe that the Olympic Games should give a message of unity and solidarity, to all the athletes and all the people of the world”.