Russia’s depleted Olympic team heads for Rio de Janeiro

Over 100 Russians have so far been banned from the Games, including track and field stars Yelena Isinbayeva and Sergey Shubenkov, who were among those meeting Putin at the Kremlin.

But it was Putin who assumed the role of head cheerleader, the 63-year-old former KGB officer bidding the country’s athletes good luck, calling them “winners” and promising them financial rewards if they won medals in Rio.

Members of the Italian olympic team arrive at the Rio de Janeiro International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, July 28, 2016.

The tournament, given the super imaginative name “Stars 2016” (which, if you type into google, will provide you with a weird mix of results ranging from “Dancing With The Stars” to horoscope readings, and very little about athletic excellence) will take place this Thursday, Russian time, and will be held at Moscow’s Znamensky Brothers Stadium.

The IOC’s new Olympic Channel will be launched next month following the closing ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Games.

On Thursday cycling’s governing body, the UCI, became the latest global federation to declare on Russian athletes’ eligibility for Rio, approving 11 cyclists but rejecting six others – three for previous bans and three because they were named as being on a list of “protected athletes” in the McLaren report.

The IAAF is the only sport to impose a near-blanket ban on Russians, only deeming one – long jumper Darya Klishina – eligible for Rio.

The World Anti-Doping Agency’s recent 100-page report found the Russian government “beyond a reasonable doubt” was complicit in a massive program to provide performance-enhancing drugs to its athletes in 30 sports and then cover it up.

Then it offered its pathway – with a supposedly “high criteria” – to compete, if the Russian athletes can prove to their worldwide federations they haven’t used performance-enhancing drugs.

Sixteen Russian fencers have qualified for the Rio Games and there are four reserves.

The IOC told CNN its decision is final, but Stepanova can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Had they implemented a full ban, Stepanov believes it would have brought about a cultural change in Russian sports where even clean athletes would realize “if they see something wrong, they have to fight it”.

Athletes taking to the water at next month’s Olympic Games have been warned about the health implications of entering the city’s sewer-ridden waters. “We have and will continue providing that education to athletes”, Keino said.

Yulia Efimova, Mikhail Dovgalyuk, Natalia Lovtcova, Anastasia Krapivina, Nikita Lobintsev, Vladimir Morozov and Daria Ustinova are seven Russian swimmers banned by the governing body FINA from competing at Rio.

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko wrote to the IAAF on Monday to get the ban overturned. “In Russia there is not, and never has been, any state support for doping”.

This, of course, is not happening to athletes from other countries, though doping is a fixture of high-achievement sports everywhere.

However, the International Olympic Committee then introduced a ban on any Russian athletes with a history of doping, and she was out again.

The rest of the team is made up of two athletes from Syria, two from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and one from Ethiopia.