Banned: seven Russian swimmers barred from Rio Olympics in new Fina doping crackdown
Fina, the world governing body for swimming, takes action after IOC leaves it up to sports federations to make a decision in the fallout to state-run doping
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Swimming’s world governing body on Monday moved swiftly to ban seven Russians from competing at next month’s Rio Olympics in the fallout from Russia’s rampant state-run doping.
Fina was the first sport to impose bans in light of Sunday’s IOC decision, which ruled against a blanket ban on all Russian competitors in Rio, instead leaving it up to individual sports federations to decide whether to accept Russians.
Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev, both 4x100 metres freestyle relay bronze medallists with the Russian team at the 2012 Olympics, and Yulia Efimova, another 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, were among the seven banned. Efimova won the 100 metres breastroke final at the 2015 world championships in Kazan, Russia,
“Fina acknowledges and supports the IOC’s position in respect of the participation of clean Russian athletes to the Olympic Games in Rio,” a statement said, referring also to a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report issued last week that laid bare Russian state-run doping.
“The Wada Independent Person [McLaren) report has shown that anti-doping rules ... and the Wada code were not correctly implemented in Russia,” it added.
“The exact implication for the Russian Swimming Federation is still to be clarified. For this purpose, the matter has been forwarded to an ad hoc commission, which will have to investigate.”
In the meantime, Fina declared the seven “not eligible” for Rio, which begins on August 5.
The other swimmers listed were: Mikhail Dovgalyuk, Natalia Lovtcova, Anastasia Krapivina and Daria Ustinova.
Fina said it would also retest all the samples of Russian athletes collected at the Kazan 2015 World Championships.
“There is no indication in the IP report that athletes of the Russian Synchronised Swimming Federation, Russian Diving Federation and Russian Water Polo would be implicated,” Fina added.
