No blanket ban on Russian Federation in Rio Summer Olympics — IOC

IOC President Thomas Bach said in a telephone conference that the IOC had to protect all clean athletes, not answer to anyone’s expectations of a ban. Bach says that the International Olympic Committee is protecting clean athletes in its action. “This may not please everybody, but this result is one which is respecting the rules of justice and all the clean athletes all over the world”.

On a conference call with reporters Sunday, IOC president Thomas Bach said the IOC’s decision had been hard and that he was aware it would not please everybody.

Meanwhile, the World Anti-Doping Agency is disappointed that Olympics leaders have rejected their plea to ban Russian Federation completely.

Russian Federation has admitted some doping violations by its athletes and coaches, but still denies that the government was involved.

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart said the “IOC has refused to take decisive leadership” in a most important moment for the integrity of the Olympic Games and clean athletes. “We are grateful to the International Olympic Committee for such a decision”, sports minister Vitaly Mutko told R-Sport news agency.

One of IOC’s criteria also states that: “The IFs to examine the information contained in the Independent Person (IP) Report, and for such goal seek from World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) the names of athletes and National Federations (NFs) implicated”.

“We have expressed our appreciation for her whistleblowing and this is why we are inviting the two to attend the Olympic games as guests of the IOC”.

The IOC on Sunday instead ruled that the governing bodies of each sport represented at the Olympics must judge whether to accept or exclude athletes from Russian Federation.

The IOC has instead passed responsibility to individual federations of the 28 sports in the Summer Games to check the records of Russian competitors in the wake of a second World Anti-Doping Agency-funded investigation, which found proof of a doping programme directed by the Russian state.

Niggli also expressed disappointment that an International Olympic Committee ethics commission ruled that whistleblower athlete Yulia Stepanova could not go to Rio, even competing as a neutral.

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) refusal to ban Russian Federation from the Rio Games was slammed yesterday by United States Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart.

It also ordered the immediate re-testing of all Russian athletes from the Sochi Olympics.

Evidence of widespread doping in Russian track and field was provided by 800-meter runner Stepanova, who hoped to compete in Rio as an independent athlete.

The “Chef De Mission” of the Australian Olympic Team, Kitty Chiller, said the decision to allow Russian Federation to compete was the right one. “We are not going to give special protection to anyone”. But the officials stopped short of completely barring the entire Russian delegation, as the U.S. and other Western powers have urged.

While the country has conceded that some of their competitors doped, they say the government wasn’t connected with it, and the Russian media claims that this is all a political controversy spearheaded by the United States.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned that the affair could split the Olympic movement, bringing echoes of the 1980s.