Rio 2016: 270 Russians cleared to compete at Olympic Games

A week later, the International Olympic Committee made a decision to have the sports federations rule on who could compete in Rio based on McLaren’s evidence and special criteria, such as not nominating any Russian with a previous sanction.

The IOC Review Panel on Thursday announced the participation list for Russian athletes at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

Instead, the IOC asked global federations to examine each individual Russian athlete to determine whether they should be eligible to compete.

Even as the International Olympic Committee was confirming the decision of a three-person panel appointed to review the submissions made by individual sporting federations, the court of arbitration for sport indicated up to a dozen more could be added to the total.

In July, the IAAF prohibited all Russian athletes from taking part in worldwide competitions, including the upcoming Rio Olympics, over doping allegations.

It will also point to the other sanctions – an accreditation ban on Russian sports ministry staff and a “freeze” on staging major events in Russia – that remain in place on a provisional basis until the end of the year.

Several worldwide federations announced separately Thursday that they had received the final approval for Russian entries in their events, including boxing, judo, equestrian, volleyball and golf.

Track and field athletes were banned relatively early on in the process, but the International Olympic Committee left much of the decision making up to the individual governing bodies of each sport.

CAS said the rule goes against the IOC’s stated aim “to provide the athletes with an opportunity to rebut the presumption of guilt and to recognize the right to natural justice”.

Some Russian athletes competing in canoeing, cycling, rowing, sailing, swimming, and wrestling have been banned, while some are allowed to compete.

World champion Yulia Efimova led five Russian swimmers who won Olympic reprieves on Friday taking their doping-tainted country to at least 276 competitors at the Rio Games.

“For clean athletes, I think the situation in Rio is tough to watch”, said Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

A Court of Arbitration for Sport might have opened the door for Russians with doping sanctions to compete in Rio, but one will be noticeably absent – whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova. “I think this is absolutely unfair”. “We of course accept their judgement”, a brief statement said.

The unidentified Greek competitor’s A sample tested positive for banned substances in a pre-Games test also conducted in July in Athens and the athlete has left the Olympic village. “You can not answer to a violation of a law by another violation of a law”. Some competitions are already underway.