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Sunday, July 24, 2016

2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil - Russia not given blanket Games ban by International Olympic Committee (IOC)Sunday July 24,2016

Russia will not receive a blanket ban from Rio 2016 following the country's doping scandal.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will leave it up to individual sports' governing bodies to decide if Russian competitors are clean and should be allowed to take part.

The decision follows a report in which Canadian Law Professor Richard McLaren said Russia operated a state-sponsored doping programme from 2011 to 2015.

IOC president Thomas Bach said: "We have set the bar to the limit by establishing a number of very strict criteria which every Russian athlete will have to fulfil if he or she wants to participate in the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
"I think in this way, we have balanced on the one hand, the desire and need for collective responsibility versus the right to individual justice of every individual athlete."

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko described the decision as "objective" but "very tough", while the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) claimed the IOC had "refused to take decisive leadership".

UK Sports Minister Tracey Crouch said: "The scale of the evidence in the McLaren report arguably pointed to the need for stronger sanctions rather than leaving it to the international federations at this late stage."

The 28 individual federations now have just 12 days to "carry out an individual analysis of each competitor's anti-doping record, taking into account only reliable adequate international tests, and the specificities of each sport and its rules, in order to ensure a level playing field".

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"

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has already ruled that Russian track and field athletes will not compete at the Games, a decision which was upheld on Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

How the Russian doping allegations unfolded

December 2014: A German TV documentary alleges that as many as 99% of Russian athletes are guilty of doping. Wada announces an independent commission to investigate the allegations.
9 November 2015: Russia should be banned from athletics completion and were guilty of state-sponsored, systemic doping practices, says Wada's independent commission.
13 November 2015: IAAF provisionally suspends Russia's athletics federation from international competition.
27 June 2016: 67 Russian athletes appeal against their bans from this summer's Rio Olympics to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
18 July 2016: Wada's McLaren report claims Russia operated a state-sponsored doping programme for four years across the "vast majority" of summer and winter Olympic sports.
21 July 2016: Cas rejects the appeal of Russian athletes who attempted to overturn their suspension from this summer's Olympics.



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