Russian Federation goes to Rio

There are over 300 Russian athletes outside of track and field that have qualified for the Rio games this year, though the odds of them being disqualified by individual sports federations seems like a long shot because, as we said, the games are just 12 days away.

The question of whether to ban Russian athletes less than two weeks before the start of the worldwide competition came after a scathing independent report found widespread evidence of doping among Russian athletes participating in the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, a city in their home country.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said that the body opted against an outright ban in order to protect the rights of clean Russian competitors. Furthermore, any exceptional entry of a Russian athlete should be considered by the International Olympic Committee and IPC for participation under a neutral flag and in accordance with very strict criteria.

Russia’s track and field athletes have already been banned by the IAAF, the sport’s governing body, a decision that was upheld Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and was accepted by the International Olympic Committee again on Sunday.

Each athlete’s respective doping record will again be taken into account, with federations asked to analyse “reliable, adequate global tests” – not those conducted within Russia. The IOC went as far as to say Russian athletes don’t enter the games with a presumption of innocence.

Vitaly Mutko, the Russian sports minister alleged to have been complicit in the doping programme, said he did not expect the rules to have much of an impact.

It will accept no Russian athlete who has been sanctioned for doping rule offences in the past.

But the Olympic leaders said “each affected athlete must be given the opportunity to rebut the applicability of collective responsibility in his or her individual case”.

The IOC instead left the decision to made on a sport-by-sport basis – a decision which has angered Rutherford.

The Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) is calling for Russian Federation to be banned from the Rio Paralympics for systemic doping.

The IOC statement added: “The executive board would like to express its appreciation for Mrs Stepanova’s contribution to the fight against doping and to the integrity of sport”.

“You do feel sorry if there are any clean athletes in Russian Federation who have put their hearts and souls into trying to qualify for the Olympics, but at the same time so many of their athletes are in this system”.