Spokesman for Rio Olympics: Athletes can compete in safety

“We need to seriously work on the reformations in this sport”, Mutko, who is now on a visit to France, said. “I believe that extremely serious reformation decisions are to be made regarding this federation”.

Richard McLaren, who was appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to head an independent investigative team, presents his report in Toronto, Ontario, Canada July 18, 2016.

According to the details, the commission claimed it had found evidence that Russia’s Sports Ministry and the Center for the Training of Russian National Teams and the Federal Security Service had covered up a doping program in Russian sports.

More than 250 Russian athletes from an original team of 387 have been cleared to compete but still await the green light this week from a three-member International Olympic Committee panel that has the final say.

Having already had two quota places removed for previous doping violations, the International Weightlifting Federation announced last week that the eight remaining Russians would not be allowed to compete at Rio 2016 following the reanalysis of samples from the last two Summer Olympics.

As a result, only one Russian track and field athlete has been cleared to compete while dozens of other Russians from different sports are banned from the Rio Games due to doping sanctions they have received in the past. “Because of the seriousness of the allegations, we could not uphold the presumption of innocence for Russian athletes”.

“You can not punish a human being for the failures of his or her government if he or she is not implicated”.

The IOC’s rejection of a full ban has been harshly criticized by many anti-doping bodies, athletes’ groups and Western media.

“We took immediate measures to shed full light on the allegations and more actions and sanctions will follow if necessary”.

Bach spoke at a ceremony ahead of the IOC’s 129th session, a three-day assembly starting Tuesday.

Responding to Bach’s swipe about supervision of the Russian doping labs, WADA said its focus is on the “technical abilities” of the labs.

The Stingers had been training in Italy in recent weeks before flying to Brazil, ahead of their first game against Russian Federation on Tuesday, local time. The political and economic crisis in the country is unprecedented.

Four members of the Aussie Stingers have contracted a virus days out from the Rio Olympics.