Russia not given Complete Games Ban by IOC

The Rio Games start on 5 August.

Any Russian who has served a doping ban will not be eligible for next month’s Olympics. Track and field athletes have already been banned.

A report by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren  said Russia operated a state-sponsored doping programme from 2011 to 2015.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will leave it up to individual sports’ governing bodies, to decide if Russian competitors are clean and should be allowed to take part.

Russia will not receive a blanket ban from Rio 2016 following the country’s doping scandal but Competitors from Russia who want to take part in the Games will have to meet strict criteria laid down by the IOC.

IOC president Thomas Bach said: “We have set the bar to the limit by establishing a number of very strict criteria which every Russian athlete will have to fulfil if he or she wants to participate in the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

“I think in this way, we have balanced on the one hand, the desire and need for collective responsibility versus the right to individual justice of every individual athlete.”