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IOC President Thomas Bach (centre) during the IOC Executive Board Meeting on July 30 in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: AFP

Right to rule: International Olympic Committee sets up three person panel to decide on Russian entries

The group will decide on the entry of athletes whose names have been forwarded to compete by their international sports federations and approved by an independent arbitrator

A three person International Olympic Committee panel will make a final ruling on which individual Russian athletes are allowed to compete in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) ruling executive board, meeting on Saturday for the final time before the opening of the Games on Friday, said the panel will decide on the entry of Russian athletes whose names have been forwarded to compete by their international sports federations and approved by an independent arbitrator.

“This panel will decide whether to accept or reject that final proposal,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.

“We want to make it absolutely clear that we are the ones making the final call.”

IOC President Thomas Bach speaks during the IOC Executive Board Meeting.

The move comes amid a doping scandal that has led to the exclusion of more than 100 Russian athletes connected to state-sponsored cheating. More than 250 Russian athletes have been cleared to compete by the federations.

The panel will have to make their ruling before the opening ceremony.

“We’re working on a very, very tight timeline,” Adams said. “It has to be finished by Friday at the very latest.”

The panel will consist of three executive board members: Turkey’s Ugur Erdener, chairman of the IOC medical commission; Germany’s Claudia Bokel, head of the athletes’ commission; and Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, a vice president of the modern pentathlon federation.

Adams said the panel will review every athlete cleared by the federations, but would not reopen the cases of those who have been barred.

Disharmony: Wada ‘disappointed’ as IOC fails to ban Russia from Olympic Games over doping scandal

An arbitrator from the Court of Arbitration for Sport will make an initial ruling before the final decision goes to the IOC panel.

“This review board panel will look at every single decision, every single athlete, to make sure the IOC is happy with the decision that’s been taken,” Adams said. “It’s very important that the IOC makes the final decision based on independent advice.”

The Russian delegation arrives at the Olympic village in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Kyodo

Saturday’s meeting came less than a week after the IOC board decided not to ban Russia’s entire team from the games because of state-sponsored doping.

Rejecting calls by more than a dozen anti-doping agencies for a complete ban on Russia, the IOC left it to the federations to vet which athletes could compete or not.

Russia escapes total ban from Rio Games

The Russians banned so far include the 67 track and field athletes barred as a whole by the International Association of Athletics Federations, and more than 30 others rejected under new IOC eligibility criteria.

Russia’s eight member weightlifting team were kicked out of the Games on Friday for what the international federation called “extremely shocking” doping results that brought the sport into “disrepute.”

Richard McLaren. Photo: AP

The IOC has been roundly criticised by anti-doping bodies, athletes groups and Western media for not imposing a total ban on Russia.

Pressure for the full sanction followed a World Anti-Doping Agency report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren that accused Russia’s sports ministry of overseeing a vast doping conspiracy involving the country’s summer and winter sports athletes.

IOC president Thomas Bach has defended the decision as one that protects individual athletes who have not been implicated in doping.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: panel has final say on Russian athletes
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