Olympiad with reservations

The International Olympic Committee did not refer the entire Russian team from the Summer Olympic Games, which will be held from August 5 to 21 in Rio de Janeiro, but put forward a number of conditions for Russian athletes who want to be allowed for competitions. Such a decision was made following a video conference of the IOC Executive Committee, which was held today at the headquarters of the organization in Lausanne.

Russian athletes who had previously come across doping will not be allowed to participate in the Olympic Games. This means that the IOC decision does not definitely concern athletes, since in November 2015 the International Association of athletics federations (IAAF) disqualified the All -Russian Federation of Athletics and removed Russian athletes from participation in all international tournaments.

The remaining members of the national team must undergo an additional anti -doping audit. Athletes who will not pass such an audit will be deprived of the IOC accreditation. Each international federation will additionally decide on the admission of Russians for competitions, the press release of the executive committee of the organization said. The Russian delegation at the Games in Rio includes 387 athletes (including 68 athletes), the fate of each of them will decide individually.

The IOC also decided to prevent the runner Julia Stepanova, who was the main informant of the World Anti -Doping Agency (WADA), to the competition. It is on its testimony that part of the accusations on the systematic use of doping in Russian sports is based. On July 1, IAAF announced that Stepanova will be able to act in Rio as an independent participant. Previously, she was disqualified for doping in Russia, after which she immigrated to Canada. In IAAF, Stepanova’s admission to the competition explained her “outstanding contribution to the protection of“ pure ”athletes and interests of athletics.”

The night before, the British newspaper The Daily Mail, citing familiar sources familiar with the situation, reported that the IOC had already made an informal decision and he was not going to allow any Russian athlete to the Olympic Games, except for the jump in the length of Daria Klisina, who trains in the United States and is unlikely to be associated with doping schemes in Russia. According to the publication, the IOC wanted to remove the entire national team from the competition in order to punish Russian athletes for the doping abuse that allegedly existing since 2011.

“IOC wants to remove Russia to show that doping is an insult to all sports. In fact, this means full removal from participation in Games in Rio, ”said the sources of the newspaper. According to them, the possibility of removing Russia from participating in the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea is also being considered.

Today, Russian gymnasts flew out in Rio de Janeiro. During the day, conflicting information about the problems of athletes with their resettlement in the Olympic village came from the Brazilian city. The head of the delegation of the Olympic team Igor Kazikov denied this information.

Closer to 17:00 (at that time a decision on the Russian team was announced) information began to appear that the IOC would nevertheless agree to allow absolutely “clean” athletes with a number of conditions before the competition. “We are going, but with big reservations. There will be new criteria for athletes, the decision on the lists will make international federations within the next few days. The criteria for Russia are not very good. Losses in the team are expected to be noticeable-obviously not one or two people, ”said Sport-Express , familiar with the situation.

On July 18, WADA recommended the entire national team of Russia from the 2016 Olympics. Such a recommendation was made on the basis of the last report of an independent commission of the anti -doping agency. It said that from 2011 to 2015, Russian athletes systematically used doping, including at the games in Sochi, and a special scheme was used to conceal positive samples, to which high -ranking sports officials and FSB officers were involved.

In particular, the document includes Deputy Minister of Sports Yuri Nagorny, adviser to the Minister of Sports for Anti -Doping Support Natalya Zhelovanova, deputy director of the sports training center Irina Rodionova, as well as directly the Minister of Sports of Russia Vitaliy Mutko.

The investigation of the use of doping in Russia, which was headed by the Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, was based on the testimony of the former head of the Moscow Anti -Doping Laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov. He stated that he replaced the doping of samples of athletes during the Sochi Olympiad at the direction of the government. According to him, the Doping Program included at least 15 athletes who won gold medals at these competitions.