Russian national team will still participate in the Olympics

12 days before the start of the Olympics, it became known that Russian athletes will be able to take part in competitions. Photo: depositphotos.com

The International Olympic Committee decided not to remove the Russian national team from participation in the Olympic Games.

The decision on the participation of each individual athlete will be made by sports federations.

The IOC decision followed the publication of a report in which a professor of law from Canada, Richard McLaren concludes that in Russia a large-scale doping program was conducted from 2011 to 2015.

The Olympics in Rio de Janeiro opens on 5 August.

Athletes from Russia who wish to take part in competitions will have to meet strict criteria set by the IOC. After hearing the head of the Russian Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov, the IOC decided that Russian athletes would be able to take part in competitions if they met certain criteria and will have to undergo an additional doping test, according to the decision of the International Olympic Committee, published on the organization's website.


“The access of each Russian athlete will be strictly controlled in accordance with an out-of-competition testing program in coordination with the relevant international federation and WADA,” the decision states. Any athlete who fails this testing will have their IOC accreditation immediately revoked.
At the same time, as stated in the decision of the International Olympic Committee, published on the website of the organization, Russian athletes ever convicted of doping will not be able to participate in the Rio Olympics.

“The Russian Olympic Committee is not permitted to admit to the Olympics any athletes who have ever been punished for doping, even if the period of sanctions has expired,” the decision says.

A report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), published by 18 in July, stated that the Russian authorities encouraged the systematic use of doping at the state level.

The document states that the Ministry of Sports controlled and manipulated the results of the athletes' analyzes and exchanged them with the active participation and with the help of the FSB and the Center for Sports Training (CSP) of the Russian national teams in Moscow and Sochi.

IOC President Thomas Bach previously promised the toughest sanctions against Russia. According to him, the results of the investigation, summarized in the McLaren report, indicate a “shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and the Olympic Games.”

At the same time, the decision on the participation of Russian track and field athletes at the Rio Olympics will not be reconsidered, according to the decision of the International Olympic Committee published on the organization’s website. “The IAAF has already formed its decision in relation to Russian athletes,” the document says. Previously, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) allowed only one Russian athlete out of 136 declared to participate in the Games in Rio de Janeiro - long jumper Daria Klishina.

The International Olympic Committee also confirmed that Yulia Stepanova, who became one of the sources of information in the doping scandal, will not be allowed to participate in the Olympics as a “neutral” athlete.

Earlier it was reported that Stepanova, intending to act not under the Russian, but under a neutral Olympic flag, will be admitted to the Games at the request of WADA.

Stepanova has failed doping tests in the past and is also said to not meet the “ethical requirements” of the IOC.

The IOC statement says:

“The Executive Committee would like to express its appreciation to Ms. Stepanova for her contributions to the fight against doping and to the purity and integrity of world sport.”

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