Rio 2016: IOC decide against blanket ban on Russian team at Summer Olympic Games

No blanket ban: Russian athletes have not been barred from the Games by the IOC
(Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Tom Dutton25 July 2016

The International Olympic Committee has opted against issuing a blanket ban on Russian athletes preparing to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympics in August, Associated Press reports.

The decision follows Monday's publication of the WADA-commmissioned McLaren report, which uncovered widespread state-sponsored doping in the country during the 2014 Winter Games and dating back to 2011.

Russia's track and field athletes had already seen their ban - in place since November 2015 - upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on appeal last week, but the IOC today opted against enforcing a ban that would have extended to cover the entire Russian team of 387 athletes.

The IOC had vowed earlier this week to 'explore all legal possibilities' before reaching their conclusion and have decided to leave the decision with international federations, who will determine if individual athletes are clean.

In its statement, the IOC listed its decisions and what they meant to those athletes wishing to participate and the workload now given to the international sports federations, saying it would not accept the entry of any Russian athlete that could not meet a list of conditions.

They include the federations applying the WADA Code agreed last month, and the federations have been told not to accept the absence of a positive drugs test from an athletes' record as sufficient to grant access to the Games.

Each athlete's respective doping record will again be taken into account, with federations asked to analyse "reliable, adequate international tests" - not those conducted within Russia.

Any athlete or official implicated in the McLaren report should be excluded and the international federations will also have to apply their own rules in relation to collective sanctions against the Russian national federation in their respective sport.

The IOC has also said that the Russian Olympic Committee will be unable to select any athlete who has been sanctioned for doping in the past, even if they have served any prior punishments.

Meanwhile, the IOC has rejected a bid by Russian whistleblower Yulia Stepanova to compete as neutral athlete in Olympics.

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