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Russia will have the cleanest team at the Rio Olympics after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that 271 of its athletes have been allowed to participate in the Games, according to the country's Olympic committee president Alexander Zhukov.
"The result from the IOC Review Panel is as follows: 271 athletes will form the team entered by the Russian National Olympic Committee (ROC) from the original entry list of 389 athletes," the IOC said in a press release on Thursday.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach speaks during the opening ceremony of the 129th International Olympic Committee session, in Rio de Janeiro on August 1, 2016, ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Phoro By: Fabrice Coffrini/Pool Photo via AP
Around 70% of the competitors initially selected to represent Russia in Rio are now free to compete. Those given permission to participate include 18 shooters, 11 boxers, 11 judokas, eight tennis players, six sailors, five equestrian riders, three archers and one golfer, among others.
According to Russian news agency R-Sport, 29 swimmers and canoeing world champion Andrey Kraitor were also allowed to compete.
Russian athletes bid farewell to people at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, Russia, July 28, 2016. Photo By: Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn
In July, the IAAF prohibited all Russian athletes from taking part in international competitions, including the upcoming Rio Olympics, over doping allegations.
Despite calls for a blanket ban on the Russian athletes from the World Anti-Doping Agency, the IOC later made a decision not to ban the entire Russian Olympic team from participating in the Rio Olympics, choosing to leave it to the individual sports federations to decide on athletes' fate.
"Not one team underwent such strict requirements as Russian athletes," Zhukov told a news conference in Rio. "No athletes from any country ... had the rules changed to bar those previously guilty of doping."
Alexander Zhukov Photo By: Kiarill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images
The final decision for giving clearance to the athletes was made by a three-person IOC panel after recommendations were sent by their respective sports federations.
However, the permission do not include track and field athletes and weightlifters, who were banned for doping offences. And another five athletes - three track cyclists, a wrestler and a canoeist - will know by Friday if they can take part in the Rio Olympic Games.
(APD)
