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Agence France-Presse

Russian swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev on Saturday launched the first challenge against International Olympic Committee sanctions excluding them from the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will hold an emergency session in Rio on Sunday to hear there case, just five days before the start of the Games, according to sources close to the case.
The move by the two Olympic medal winners was announced as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held two days of talks on fallout from the Russia doping crisis.
Morozov, 24, and Lobintsev, 27, have called on CAS to declare “invalid and unenforceable” an IOC order for federations to exclude athletes implicated in an investigation on Russia’s state-run doping system.

They were among seven Russians banned by the International Swimming Federation (Fina) last week after the order.
A report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren for the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) said Russia’s doping had been organised by the sports ministry and aided by the Russian secret service at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Rejecting calls for a blanket ban on Russia, the IOC decided on July 24 that individual sports federations should investigate athletes implicated in the report and decide who should be excluded.
Right to rule: International Olympic Committee sets up three person panel to decide on Russian entries
So far, at least 117 individuals from the 387 that the Russian Olympic Committee wanted to enter have been excluded.
Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said on Saturday he expected 266 athletes to compete. Boxing, golf, gymnastics and taekwondo federations have yet to report their decisions.
A three-member IOC panel made up of Ugur Erdener, president of World Archery and head of the IOC medical and scientific commission, Claudia Bockel of the IOC athletes commission, and Spanish IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch, will make the “final decision” on the Russian team, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.

Morozov, a member of the 4x100m freestyle relay team that took bronze at the 2012 London Games, and Lobintsev, who took silver in the 4x200m freestyle team in Beijing in 2008 and bronze in the 4x100m freestyle in London, have taken their action against the IOC and Fina.
“Both swimmers request CAS to declare the decision of the IOC executive board of July 24 2016 invalid and unenforceable,” said a CAS statement.
“The swimmers also request that the decision of the Fina bureau of July 25 2016, declaring both of them ineligible for the Olympic Games in Rio, be set aside.”
Banned: seven Russian swimmers barred from Rio Olympics in new Fina doping crackdown
Morozov said in a letter to Fina president Julio Maglione this week that he had never failed a drug test taken by Russian and international experts.
“Throughout the last six years I’ve been drug tested by doping control agencies at my home and at the pool, at least once a month, and sometimes every other day,” he said in the letter published on his Facebook page.
“I am sure that in a justice-driven system I have full right to take part in the Olympic Games.”


Wada president Craig Reedie, who called for a complete ban on Russian athletes in Rio, is to address the IOC meeting on Sunday.
The CAS has already rejected an appeal made by 67 Russian athletes against a ban ordered by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) before the IOC sanctions.
Athletics was the first sport touched by the doping controversy.
Russian doping whistleblower Vitaly Stepanov said that the Rio Olympics “will not be clean” and blasted the IOC for not banning Russia.

Stepanov, who with his 800m runner wife Yuliya Stepanova, gave details of the state-run doping programme to a German documentary released in 2014, said efforts to clean up sport had failed.
“It has always been the case in the Olympics. There has never been a clean Olympics and there is no reason to believe that Rio will be clean,” he said.
“Unfortunately, doped athletes will be competing,” said the former Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada) official now living in hiding in the United States with his wife.




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Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Last chance saloon: Russian swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev challenge Olympic Games ban

Russian swimmers Nikita Lobintsev (left) and Vladimir Morozov at the Swimming World Championships in Kazan, Russia, in August 2015. Photo: AP

(FILES) This file photo taken on August 05, 2015 shows Russia's Vladimir Morozov reacting after the semi-finals of the men's 100m freestyle swimming event at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan. Russian swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev on July 30 lodged appeals against their doping ban from the Rio Olympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said. Both have requested that CAS, which has set up special courts in Rio, declare "invalid and unenforceable" an International Olympic Committee order for federations to exclude athletes implicated in an investigation on doping in Russia. Morozov and Lobintsev were among seven Russians banned by the International Swimming Federation (FINA). / AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER NEMENOV

(FILES) This file photo taken on July 31, 2013 shows Russia's Nikita Lobintsev reacting at the end of the semi-finals of the men's 100-metre freestyle swimming event in the FINA World Championships at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. Russian swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev on July 30 lodged appeals against their doping ban from the Rio Olympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said. Both have requested that CAS, which has set up special courts in Rio, declare "invalid and unenforceable" an International Olympic Committee order for federations to exclude athletes implicated in an investigation on doping in Russia. Morozov and Lobintsev were among seven Russians banned by the International Swimming Federation (FINA). / AFP PHOTO / FRANCOIS XAVIER MARIT

Russian doping whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova who runs under a neutral flag smiles before competing in a women's 800m heat during the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Wednesday, July 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Fifa promises “appropriate steps” over alleged Russian doping cover-up following Wada report

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko speaks at a news conference in Moscow in November 2015. Photo: AP

FILE - In this Jan. 24, 2010 file photo, from left, then FIFA president Sepp Blatter, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, who was the Russian Football Union president in 2005-2009, and then UEFA president Michel Platini seen after Russia's Rubin Kazan victory over Kazakhstans's Aktobe at their final soccer match of the 18th CIS and Baltic Cup match. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday, July 18, 2016 the officials named in a new report as directly responsible for widespread doping will be suspended pending a thorough investigation in Russia. Putin gave no names, but his statement appears to apply to Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko and his deputy, Yuri Nagornykh, who are both discussed in the report. (AP Photo)

FILE - In this April 19, 2016 file photo FIFA President Gianni Infantino, left, listens as Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Court to rule on banned Russian athletes’ fate as the rest of country’s Olympics squad hold their breath

This file photo taken on February 7, 2014 shows the Olympic and Russian flags during the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics. AFP

FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2014 file photo Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach sit at a cafe along the promenade on the Black Sea near the Olympic Park at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The executive board of the International Olympic Committee has a teleconference on Tuesday, July 19, 2016 to go over options in the wake of a report that uncovered a state-run doping scheme in Russia. After receiving the evidence from the report it commissioned, the World Anti-Doping Agency called for the IOC to consider a ban of Russia's entire Olympic team. (AP Photo/David Goldman, file)

(FILES) This file photo taken on September 23, 2009 in Moscow shows a technician of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Julyt 19, 2016 it will study "legal options" on banning Russia from the Rio Games and ordered disciplinary action against Russian officials implicated in a state-run doping system. The IOC executive held emergency telephone talks after a World Anti-Doping Agency commissioned report said there had been state-sanctioned doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other major events. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGER

Ruling against Russia athletes will scare off drug cheats, says Usain Bolt

Usain Bolt, in London ahead of the Anniversary Games meeting, has no time for drug cheats. Photo: AFP

FILE - In this July 3, 2016, file photo, Justin Gatlin reacts after winning the during for men's 100-meter final at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene Ore. Gatlin will be competing at the Rio Games. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

epa05434805 Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt speaks at a press conference in London, Britain, 21 July 2016. Usain Bolt is taking part in the Anniversary Games being held at The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on 22-23 July 2016. EPA/ANDY RAIN

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Athletics - Russian Olympians Cup - Men's javelin throw - Brothers Znamensky Olympic Centre, Moscow, Russia, 28/7/16. Dmitri Tarabin of Russia competes. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

(FILES) This file photo taken on February 7, 2014 shows the Olympic and Russian flags during the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics at the Fisht Olympic Stadium on February 7, 2014 in Sochi. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Julyt 19, 2016 it will study "legal options" on banning Russia from the Rio Games and ordered disciplinary action against Russian officials implicated in a state-run doping system. The IOC executive held emergency telephone talks after a World Anti-Doping Agency commissioned report said there had been state-sanctioned doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other major events. / AFP PHOTO / YURI KADOBNOV

Members of the Russian Olympic delegation wave from a bus after arriving at the Rio de Janeiro International Airport to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Friday. Photo: AP

Sport

Other Sport

The Court of Arbitration for Sport will hold an emergency session in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday to hear there case, just five days before the start of the event


Russian doping scandal

Last chance saloon: Russian swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev challenge Olympic Games ban

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Court of Arbitration for Sport will hold an emergency session in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday to hear there case, just five days before the start of the event

The Court of Arbitration for Sport will hold an emergency session in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday to hear there case, just five days before the start of the event