So Russia will have one track and field athlete competing in Rio after all.
This follows a ruling early Monday by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) allowing Darya Klishina to compete in the long jump event.
Last week, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspended the Russian based on “new information it received” about the 25-year-old. The IAAF did not publicly elaborate on what this new information was.
Klishina had been the only track and field athlete cleared to compete for Russia in Brazil following a widespread ban on its athletes amid claims of state-run doping.
The IAAF had been satisfied the US-based former European indoor champion was outside the Russian system.
“I am a clean athlete and have proved that already many times and beyond any doubt,” Klishina said on her Facebook page following the IAAF’s decision to suspend her. “(Having been) based in the US for three years now, I have been almost exclusively tested outside of the anti-doping system in question.
Appeal upheld
But in the early hours of Monday, CAS issued a statement saying the Russian’s appeal against suspension had been upheld. It also shed light on the reasons for the IAAF’s decision.
According to the statement, the IAAF’s Doping Review Board determined that the athlete (Klishina) “was directly affected and tainted” by a state-organized doping scheme described in a report for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The IAAF DRB also noted that “certain of the athlete’s samples has been subject to tampering and manipulation,” the statement added.
But the CAS tribunal ruled that the IAAF’s initial decision to clear Klishina should stand.
“The athlete established that she was subject to fully compliant drug-testing in and out of competition outside of Russia,” its statement said.
Klishina’s agent, Alexei Nikolaev, told CNN “Darya’s comprehensive statement will be coming soon on her FB and Twitter.”
Russian subterfuge
The damning WADA report released last month alleged a complex system of subterfuge that involved Russia’s security services tampering with and altering sealed urine samples.
And all this was carried out under the direction of the country’s sport authorities to cover up doping across a “vast majority” of winter and summer sports, it claimed.
This led to calls for Russia to be banned completely from the Rio showpiece. But the International Olympic Committee said Russian athletes “will be accepted by the IOC” to compete in Rio if they can meet strict anti-doping criteria, have no doping history and are given the green light by their own sports governing body.
Russia finished atop the medal standings at the Sochi Winter Games in 2014, securing 33 medals, including 13 gold. Two years before at the London Summer Games, Russian athletes won 79 medals, of which 22 were gold.