Russia’s depleted Olympic team arrived in Rio missing almost 100 athletes after cycling and wrestling became the latest sports to issue bans.
Cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, banned three Russians implicated in the report which exposed state-sponsored doping and another three were withdrawn because they have failed previous drug tests.
But there was a surprise as wrestling excluded just one Russian, despite the sport being shown to have had 28 tests manipulated as drug-taking was covered up on an unprecedented scale.
United World Wrestling, the governing body, defended their decision, saying more than half of those tests had been properly processed by the Moscow anti-doping laboratory. The UWW also said seven tests came from the non-Olympic discipline of pankration, leaving just three deemed suspicious.
Wrestling is likely to be one of the most controversial sports in Rio as Russia will almost certainly collect medals, having won 11 at London 2012.
The three cyclists withdrawn are believed to be road cyclist Sergey Shilov, Tour de France stage winner Ilnur Zakarin and Olga Zabelinskaya, a double bronze medallist on the road in 2012. Names of the three implicated by the World Anti-Doping Agency McLaren Report have not been disclosed but the UCI said they were working with WADA to move their cases forward ‘immediately’.
Russia’s team was originally 387-strong and yesterday a special tournament for the banned athletes — ‘Stars 2016’ — was staged in Moscow. Back in Rio, handball player Anna Sen said: ‘We’re after medals. We fight for athletes who were disqualified.’
Double gold medallist Yelena Isinbayeva, part of the banned Russian track and field team, is believed to have declined an offer to carry Russia’s flag at the opening ceremony in Rio next Friday. – Daily Mail