18 June 2016, 08:33 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) will do everything in its power to make sure that Russian athletes can go to the 2016 Rio Olympics, NOC President Alexander Zhukov said Saturday.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) upheld on Friday its decision to suspend Russian track and field athletes from August’s Olympics in Brazil over last year’s doping allegations. Russian officials vowed to go appeal the move in court.
"We will fight till the bitter end," Zhukov told reporters in Moscow. "There is an official [IAAF] decision, we will study it with the help of lawyers and consider further steps. We need to wait until June 21, which will decide everything."
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is scheduled to hold an emergency summit next Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland, to discuss how this will affect innocent athletes.
