Moscow, May 25: The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) has confirmed receiving documents from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) notifying that 14 athletes in three sports disciplines were tested positive after a cross-checking of doping samples of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Any potential participant in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro who proved to use doping in the past cannot be a member of the Russian athletics team at the Games, the All-Russia Athletics Federation said on its official website, reports Tass.
“The ARAF presidium has introduced amendments to the criteria of selecting athletes who will go to the Olympics. The list of requirements now contains a special clause saying that any potential participant in the Olympics who proved to have used doping in the previous years cannot be a member of the Russian national team,” a ROC statement said on Tuesday.
“The ARAF made this harsh decision for the sole purpose of doing its utmost to let clean athletes participate in the Olympics.”
“In this context, the ROC will soon inform the IOC who of the athletes listed in the letter will be present during unsealing and analysis of B samples. Representatives from the ROC will be present during this procedure as observers,” the ROC said on its website.
“In conformity with the anti-doping rules of the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Code, the names of athletes are not made public until the results of the B sample unsealing are announced and the official disciplinary procedure is launched,” the Russian Olympic Committee said.
The IOC initiated a cross check of 454 doping samples taken in Beijing from athletes who might take part at the next
Olympic Games in Brazil in 2016. B samples will be checked in June at an Australian laboratory.
Banning Russia from Rio Olympics to bring back dark days of 1980s’
Barring the entire Russian squad from the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will return sports to the 1980s when national teams boycotted competitions for political reasons, Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko has said.
The Russian national team could be banned from the upcoming Olympic Games in Brazil August 5-21 amid several major doping scandals in the country’s sports, reports Tass.
“If the whole team is suspended from participation in the Olympic Games, then this will return everything to the time when there were boycotts. I want to stress that the state has never supported people using doping,” Mutko said on Tuesday.
The 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow were marred by a boycott on behalf of a number of foreign countries, including the United States, in protest of Soviet military presence in Afghanistan.
