OLYMPICS NOTEBOOK: IOC approves entry of 271 Russian athletes

But in a statement, she and her husband Vitaly, a former Russian anti-doping official, said they believed the International Olympic Committee had discretion to invite anyone it chose to the Games.

“I think there is no other team that is so clean and carefully controlled as the Russian one”, Russian Olympic president Alexander Zhukov declared.

The news means 118 competitors of the 389-strong Russian team have been banned from competing in Rio.

“Not one team underwent such strict requirements as Russian athletes”, he told a news conference in Rio.

The CAS decision could force other federations, who were asked by the International Olympic Committee to recommend which Russians could compete, to reconsider their lists.

Despite drugs investigations which have robbed Russian Federation of almost a third of its original team, the mood in the camp was bullish on the eve of the Rio Games’ gala opening.

ARAF was at the center of numerous doping scandals since past year and in November 2015 the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspended it, thus closing the doors to all national track and field athletes for participating in all international competitions, including the 2016 Summer Olympics. It is unclear whether she will be competing for the Russian team or as an independent athlete.

Karabelshikova and Podshivalov also argued that they should be allowed to compete given they had already served their doping suspensions.

The IOC’s decision is going down well in Russian Federation.

There were 436 Russians at the London 2012 Games when they won 82 medals, including 24 golds.

Appeals by some athletes are expected, even after the games begin.

It stated that the International Olympic Committee would not accept entry of any Russian athletes unless they fulfilled a number of requirements, including never having been sanctioned for doping. With Lebedev restored to competition, the Russian delegation has risen to 277 athletes.

“I hope that he will not regret his decision about Russian athletes because as you can say, what goes around comes around”, Popov said of Coe earlier.

The world’s top Olympic official also said that all collected doping samples from the upcoming Summer Olympics in Brazil would be stored for the next ten years and would be subjected for re-tests at any moment.