Rio Olympics 2016: Russia Does Not Get Blanket Ban Amid Doping Scandal
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The IOC has decided against a complete ban on Russian athletes from the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The International Olympic Committee says it is leaving it up to global federations to decide which Russian athletes to accept in their sports.
The IOC says it will deny entry of Russian athletes who do not meet the requirements set out for the federations.
The IOC says the federations have the authority, under their own rules, to exclude Russian teams as a whole from their sports.
The body representing the 204 national Olympic committees has welcomed the IOC's decision not to impose a blanket ban on Russians from the Rio de Janeiro Games.
The International Olympic Committee's executive board decided to let individual sports federations decide which Russians should be eligible, following allegations of state-sponsored cheating by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren.
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah of Kuwait, president of the Association of National Olympic Committees, says the "allegations made in the McLaren report were shocking and directly threaten the integrity of sport."
But Sheikh Ahmad believes "banning the entire Russian team would have unfairly punished many clean athletes."
He endorsed the IOC's decision to give "international federations responsibility to ensure clean competitions in their sports at Rio 2016."
The International Olympic Committee is examining the legal options following a report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren that accused Russia's sports ministry of overseeing doping of the country's Olympic athletes.
Russia has already been handed a doping punishment when its track and field team lost an appeal against a ban on Thursday.
Earlier interim IOC measures announced Tuesday included urging winter sports federations to move their competitions out of Russia this season, in response to allegations that Russian state officials hid hundreds of failed drug tests over several years and swapped samples from doped athletes for clean ones during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Russia has admitted some doping violations by its athletes and coaches, but still denies that the government was involved. State media has painted the issue as a U.S.-led political vendetta.
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