The Russian Olympic Team believes between 265 and 270 of its athletes have been cleared to compete in the Rio Olympics, a team spokesperson says.
Konstantin Vybornov confirmed Russia was still awaiting final notification of numbers from the International Olympic Committee but they had been able to calculate expected competitors from the information and documents they have received so far.
Konstantin also said that Russia expects some of the 17 athletes who are still awaiting to hear whether they have been cleared to compete to be sent home.
IOC president Thomas Bach confirmed during a news conference Thursday that a final decision on which Russian athletes will be able to take part in the in the Games will arrive later Thursday.
Bach said all international sports federations had to be informed before a final list could be released.
A three-person IOC panel has been assessing which athletes from Russia can take part after an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report alleged state-sponsored doping in the country.
Hundreds of Russian athletes are in the Brazilian city for the Games which begin Friday.
Earlier Thursday, The International Boxing Association confirmed that all 11 Russian boxers registered for the Games had been cleared to compete by the IOC panel.
The International Judo Federation also stated that all Russian athletes who qualified for the Games will be able to compete. The International Shooting Sport Federation has also cleared 18 Russian shooters to compete in Rio.
Should the figure of between 265 and 270 athletes be correct, that would mean more than 100 competitors of the original 387-strong Russian team have been banned from competing in Rio.
The respective governing bodies of athletics and weightlifting, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the International Weightlifting Federation, had already decided that no Russian athletes will take part in their sports during the Games.
Although the Russian Weightlifting Federation appealed that decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), its petition was rejected Wednesday.
A number of Russian athletes were also banned from swimming, rowing and canoeing, although there was no blanket ban on competitors from the country in these sports.
How we got here
An independent WADA report undertaken by professor Richard McLaren and published last month alleged that wide-scale doping by Russian athletes had been covered up by the country’s security services over a number of years with the full knowledge of the ministry of sport.
WADA called for a blanket ban on Russian athletes in Rio as a result but the IOC initially opted to leave the decision up to the governing bodies of individual sports. The IOC then later stated it would compile a three-person panel to determine which Russian athletes would be cleared to take part before the Games begin on Friday.
The uncertainty this back and forth has caused led to a war of words between WADA and the IOC in recent days over who was to blame for the uncertainty.
Speaking Tuesday, Bach called for a complete overhaul of the anti-doping system. He said his organisation could not be blamed for the timing of the McLaren report, published just two weeks before the commencement of the Rio Games, or the fact that information previously offered to WADA was not followed up.
Bach also defended the IOC’s decision not to take the “nuclear option” of issuing a blanket ban on Russian athletes at the Games, stating that would be unfair to clean athletes within the country.
However, WADA president, Craig Reedie, hit back telling IOC delegates that although anti-doping systems weren’t perfect, not all of them were broken. He also took aim at an IOC delegate who had alleged Reedie was more interested in self promotion, calling such claims “offensive.”
WADA spokesperson, Ben Nichols, told CNN Wednesday, meanwhile, that his organisation had been consistent in recommending an all-out ban that was supported widely by governments, athletes and the public. But Nichols added that WADA can only make recommendations and has to respect the final decision of the IOC.
