IOC opens door for 271 Russians

The IOC on Thursday approved the entry of 271 Russian athletes to the Rio Olympics, meaning 70 percent of the country's original team will compete after a doping scandal dominated the buildup to the games.

Also on Thursday, the IOC rule barring Russian athletes with prior doping sanctions from competing in the Games was rejected as "unenforceable" by a sports arbitration panel, a decision that could open the door to further appeals and more Russians being entered.

The International Olympic Committee announced the go-ahead for 271 Russian athletes about 24 hours before the opening ceremony of the Games. Overall, more than 100 Russians have been excluded, including 67 in track and field.

The IOC recently rejected calls from anti-doping organizations to ban Russia's entire team following a report by a World Anti-Doping Agency investigator that detailed evidence of state-directed doping and cover-ups.

Instead, the IOC asked international federations to examine individual Russian athletes to determine if they should be eligible. The IOC set up a panel of three executive board members to review the entries and make the final call, taking into account the advice of an independent sports arbitrator.

After the review, the IOC declared in Thursday's statement: "271 athletes will form the team entered by the Russian National Olympic Committee from the original entry list of 389 athletes."

Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov said earlier that 271 of his country's athletes had been cleared.

"We have good news for the fans of the Russian Olympic team," he said. "The majority of the sports have been admitted in full. As of today, I think there is no other team that is so clean and so carefully controlled than the Russian one."

Several international federations announced separately that they had received the final approval for Russian entries in their events, including boxing, judo, equestrian, volleyball and golf.

Russia's track and field team remains barred following an earlier decision by the IAAF. Only one athlete, US-based long jumper Darya Klishina, was cleared by the IAAF because she had been regularly tested outside Russia.

Meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed the IOC rule that bars from the Games any Russian athletes with prior doping sanctions, saying it amounts to sanctioning someone twice for one offense. CAS said the rule "does not respect the athletes' right of natural justice."

(China Daily 08/06/2016 page11)