Russian Sport Minister Mutko grateful to IOC
The International Olympic Committee has rejected a blanket ban for all Russian athletes from participating in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, starting in a matter of days.
The decision was reached after the International Olympic Committee’s executive board held a three-hour meeting via teleconference on Sunday. The meeting included 15 Olympic leaders, including the Head of the Russian Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov.
Instead the athletics world governing body left it to national athletic sports federations to decide whether Russian athletes are eligible to compete.
Athletes will need to meet strict criteria laid out by the IOC, including proving to international federations that they have a clean doping record and have been tested by “reliable” international anti-doping bodies.
Any athletes with a proven doping history will not be allowed to compete at the Games, even if they have served their sanctions, IOC ruled.
The ruling has restored a faint hope to Russian athletes who have not been tainted by the recent doping scandal engulfing the country, although they will face a race against time to prove they are clean before the Games begin in Rio on August 5.
Russia has hailed the ruling as an “objective” decision by the International Olympic Committee on Sunday not to ban its entire team from next month’s Rio Games.
“It was objective and taken in the interests of world sport and the unity of the Olympic family. We are grateful to the IOC for such a decision,” sports minister Vitaly Mutko told R-Sport news agency.
He added later in televised comments that he was convinced that the “majority” of the Russian team would meet strict criteria to compete.
However the decision has been criticised as compromised and many sport watchers saw it coming as IOC President, Thomas Bach is a personal friend of Russian President, Vladimir Putin and has business interests in Russia.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin watch the closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, in Sochi, Russia.
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