Russia has escaped a blanket ban on its athletes competing at the Rio Olympics following allegations of state-sponsored doping.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) set out conditions for Russian competitors at the Games - including a ban on any athlete ever sanctioned for doping.
The IOC said it would be up to the federations of individual sports to decide if they would allow Russians to compete.
The decision comes after an independent report found damning evidence of state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Olympics - prompting the World Anti-Doping Agency to call for a Rio ban.
Russia's track and field athletes were already banned from competing after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld an earlier decision last week - but competitors in other sports may now be able to take part.
Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said he was grateful for the IOC decision and claimed that doping was a world problem, not just a Russian one.
He said the criteria Russian athletes would have to meet to compete were tough, but he hoped the team would ultimately have a successful games.
Mr Mutko added he hoped the majority of sports federations will support the right of Russian athletes to compete at the Olympics.
Russian officials and government officers have said the doping allegations are part of a Western conspiracy against their country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned that the affair could split the Olympic movement, bringing echoes of the 1980s when the United States led a political boycott of the Moscow Games of 1980 and the Soviet Union led an Eastern Bloc boycott of the Los Angeles Games four years later.
No comments:
Post a Comment