Five paddlers were added to the list of Russian athletes who will not be in Rio 2016 by the doping scandal revealed by the McLaren report. After the resolution of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) not to exclude Russia from the Olympic Games, the decision lies with the federations of each sport and these have begun to act.
The International Canoe Federation (ICF), which had already set aside the Romanian team and the Belarusian, has not allowed Elena Aniushina, Natalia Podolskaia, Alexander Dyachenko (champion in London 2012), Andrey Kraitor and Alexey Korovashkov to participate in the Games in Brazil .
“It’s a bitter pill for the Olympic movement and we are sad that our sport is involved,” said the ICF Secretary General, Simon Toulson. “The ICF will continue its policy of zero tolerance and excluded from the Games any athlete, in any form, does not respect the rules,” concluded the official.
The Russian team had qualified 23 canoeing athletes for Rio. The exclusions are the result of following the instructions of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow Russia’s participation in the Games, which was inaugurated on August 5, after the McLaren Report, an independent investigation confirmed the existence was known a vast system to hide doping of the biggest stars of Russian sports.
On Monday and were excluded from the Games by the IOC mandate 13 Russian Olympians (seven of them swimmers) so that the account now totals 18.
The International Sailing Federation has approved six of the seven Russians for Rio Games representatives. Pavel Sozykin is the only excluded. As of the other Federations tennis, archery, shooting and judo have confirmed the participation of all their athletes.
“They will go to Rio. These athletes have undergone doping controls since September last year to May this year on many occasions abroad. We did not have in mind any analysis in Russia, “said the president of the International Judo Federation, Marius Vizer, in an interview with Reuters.
Judo is a very important sport for President Putin. The president, who will not attend the opening ceremony on agenda issues, is a black belt and honorary president of the International Federation. Putin bid farewell to the Russian Olympic team before the trip to Brazil. How many can participate in the Games is still a mystery.
