Moscow, July 3: Under the current IAAF regulations only two Russian athletes may be able to participate in the Rio Olympic Games track and field events in August, head of the Olympic Committee of Russia) OCR’s legal department Alexandra Brilliantova said on Sunday.
“According to the current criteria of IAAF of June 17, only two Russian athletes have chances to participate in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro,” she told Tass.
“IAAF now will consider applications from athletes. If CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne) satisfies our application, the norm will be cancelled and the athletes will be allowed to the Games.”
The International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) may review the decision of June 17 if CAS satisfies application from the Russian Olympic Committee (OCR), Brilliantova said.
“IAAF has guaranteed, depending on CAS decision on the application from OCR protecting the Russian athletes, who want to participate in the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, they will review the decision,” she said.
The identity of the two athletes has not been announced.
One, however, is Yuliya Stepanova, the doping cheat turned whistleblower who is bidding to compete in Rio after fleeing Russia for United States, although it is possible she was excluded from the count.The two-time European champion has been based in Florida for several years and has been subject to regular testing outside Russia.
Another possibility is Italian-based 2014 world junior pole vault champion, Alyona Lutkovskaya.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said last month that all Russians deemed eligible to compete would do so under the Russian flag.
All-Russia Athletic Federation head Dmitry Shlyakhtin said last month that long jumper Darya Klishina met the criteria.
On June 21, head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach said that all Russian athletes, who will enter the Olympic competition in Brazil, will be allowed to participate under the national flag since they are representing the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), which is a full-fledged member of the IOC.
“When it comes to the Olympic Games, all athletes then are part of the team of the Russian Olympic Committee,” the IOC president said.
Speaking about the non-compliance reports from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and numerous “substantial allegations” in regard to the anti-doping systems in Russia and Kenya, IOC president Thomas Bach said the summit participants concluded that “they put very serious doubts on the presumption of innocence for athletes coming from these countries”.
“Therefore, each athlete coming from these two countries will have to be declared eligible by the respective international federation following individual procedure and individual evaluation of the situation,” Bach said.
“The respective international federations are the only ones who can declare an athlete technically eligible in the Games.”
The WADA Independent Commission published on November 9 last year the results of its probe into the activities of the ARAF, the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and the Russian Sports Ministry.
