No total Rio ban on Russia, IOC leaves it to federations

The International Olympic Committee on Sunday ordered individual sports federations to decide whether Russian competitors should take part in the Rio Games after failing to agree on a complete ban over Russia’s state-run doping.

The IOC executive decided that any Russian athlete wanting to join Rio Olympics starting August 5 will have to prove that he or she was not involved in the doping which an independent investigator said was organised by the sports ministry and the Russian secret service.

An IOC ethics commission also ruled that 800m runner Yuliya Stepanova, who turned whistleblower, could not go to Rio Games even as a neutral.

“We have set the bar to the limit,” IOC president Thomas Bach said, adding, “Under these exceptional circumstances, Russian athletes in any of the 28 Olympic summer sports have to assume the consequences of what amounts to a collective responsibility in order to protect the credibility of the Olympics.”