Tennis first sport to clear Russians for Rio Olympic Games

Despite calls from the World Anti-Doping Agency to ban Russia from participating in the 2016 Summer Olympics (which are just, like, 12 days away) the International Olympic Committee decided against such a measure, and will instead leave it up to individual sports federations to determine whether Russian athletes are eligible in their sports or not.

The IOC’s decision to allow some Russian athletes – though likely a much-depleted team – rejected the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommendation that Russia be banned from the Rio Olympics altogether.

Others, like judo, appear inclined to let as many Russians as possible compete in Rio. He said the decisive factor had been the fates of athletes who would have been punished by a blanket ban despite having clean records.

After a three-hour teleconference in Lausanne, the executive board passed the baton to individual sports’ governing bodies to decide if Russian competitors are clean and should be allowed to take part in next month’s Games.

If the International Olympic Committee banned Russian Federation from Rio, it would be the first time a country had been excluded since 1988, when South Africa’s International Olympic Committee suspension over apartheid was in force.

“Many, including clean athletes and whistle-blowers, have demonstrated courage and strength in confronting a culture of state-supported doping and corruption within Russian Federation”, said Tygart.

If this turns out to be Thomas Bach’s defining moment, here’s what the leader of the International Olympic Committee will be remembered for: keeping Russian Federation as part of the club, but losing the trust of thousands of athletes who thought that, maybe this year, they’d get the answers they’ve been looking for.

“We will have to take a very hard decision between a collective ban for all Russian athletes and the natural right to individual justice for every clean athlete in the world”, Bach said.

The International Tennis Federation quickly confirmed on Sunday that Russia’s seven nominated tennis players meet the IOC requirements, having been subjected to “a rigorous anti-doping testing programme outside Russia”. “You are going to have Russian athletes sitting on the start knowing that people are sitting beside them that aren’t really trusting or believing them”. Though the Committee has lifted the “presumption of innocence”, it says that each athlete deserves individual justice.

However, a number of British stars voiced their disapproval at the IOC’s decision.

About “80 percent” of the Russian team regularly undergoes global testing of the kind specified in the IOC criteria, he added. She had refused to run for Russian Federation and hoped for a special Olympic charter exemption to compete as a neutral after she gave evidence to WADA.

Meanwhile, Ings seemed livid at the IOC’s decision to ban Russian whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova from competing at the Rio Olympics.

He also retweeted a post from Former Australian Sports Anti-doping Authority boss Richard Ings in the wake of the decision, protesting the result.

“I don’t see any problem with the participation of our tennis players at the Olympics”, Shamil Tarpishev, the president of Russia’s tennis federation told TASS news agency.

“I am sure that the whole team that we’ve named will compete at Rio”. While Marius Vizer, the president of the International Judo Federation, was on record last week as favouring a laissez-faire stance, saying: “The presence of Russian athletes is very important as the Russian Judo Federation is a prominent member of the International Judo Federation, with Russian judo playing a great role in the history of sport”.