Rio 2016: Now, blanket ban on lifters

On Wednesday, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) upheld the ban on 67 Russian track and field athletes for systematic state-sponsored doping, ending any hopes they had of competing at next month’s Rio Games.

London Olympics bronze medallist Vladimir Morozov became the first to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against an IOC order to worldwide federations to exclude athletes named in a report alleging state-run doping in Russia.

Russian weightlifters will not be allowed to compete at the Olympics after the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) elected to ban them from the upcoming Games. But McLaren’s report said there was state-organised doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other major global events in Russian Federation.

The criteria states that only if they have not previously failed a drugs test and can prove they are clean and not associated with the country’s doping regime are Russian athletes eligible to take part in the Games.

In December 2014, amidst all the qualification rounds and preparations for the Rio Olympic Games, a German documentary rocked the whole sporting world.

Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Saturday that he expected 266 Russians to be in Rio.

Boxing, golf, gymnastics and taekwondo are among sports still to have announced their decisions.

Her fate had been dependent on the Court of Arbitration for Sports’ (CAS) ruling on the matter which was announced on 21 July 2016.

An IOC program commission report released on Friday said the five sports are a blend of the traditional and emerging, youth-focused events, and all have global and local appeal.

Nikita Lobintsev took a silver medal in the 4×200 m freestyle relay at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 2012 Olympics in London.

The IWF, which joins the IAAF in taking seriously the International Olympic Committee directive that “a lack of a positive test is no longer sufficient”, cited other evidence including 7 confirmed adverse analytical findings for Russian weightlifters in Beijing and London retests as the reason for the total ban.

However, the International Olympic Committee decided against a blanket ban. FINA has not specifically declared a decision on the other 29 Russian swimmers, though they were included in the federation’s declared “final entry lists” for the Olympics.

CAS last week officially set up two temporary courts here to deal with Olympic-related cases. It featured Russian athletes, coaches and anti-doping officials who revealed that the Russian government was involved in obtaining performance-enhancing drugs for athletes, which also included them covering up positive test results of their athletes.