No Complete ban on Russia from participating at the Rio 2016 Olympics

The International Olympic Committee, IOC, has in a new decision  stated Russia will not be completely banned from participating at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The IOC board today ruled that for Russian athletes to participate at the Games, they must undergo additional scrutiny by their sport’s international federation. Also, any Russian athlete with a previous doping sanction cannot compete at the games even if he or she already served a ban, BBC writes.

This follows the damning report by Richard McLaren that suggested Russia operated a state-sponsored doping programme from 2011 to 2015.

The IOC said it will leave it up to individual sports’ governing bodies to decide if Russian competitors are clean and should be allowed to take part.

IOC president Thomas Bach said: “We have set the bar to the limit by establishing a number of very strict criteria which every Russian athlete will have to fulfil if he or she wants to participate in the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

“I think in this way, we have balanced on the one hand, the desire and need for collective responsibility versus the right to individual justice of every individual athlete.”

The Russian federation has admitted some doping violations by its athletes and coaches but denies that the government was involved.