World Archery Federation Allows Russian Athletes to Compete at Rio Olympics

The World Archery Executive Board endorsed three Russian athletes to compete in the Rio Olympics.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The World Archery Executive Board endorsed participation in the upcoming Rio Olympic Games of all three Russian athletes who qualified for the competition, according to a statement issued on Monday.

"The Board has assessed the criteria established by the IOC Executive Board and confirms it is satisfied that the following three Russian athletes are eligible to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games: Tuiana Dashidorzhieva, Ksenia Perova, Inna Stepanova," the statement read.

Last week, an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commission  led by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren presented a report based on the results of its investigation into allegations that dozens of Russian athletes used performance-enhancing drugs at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Russia has been accused of running a state-wide doping program.

Following the release of the WADA report, the IOC said that it would consider a collective ban for the entire Russian team. On Sunday, the IOC Executive Board announced the decision to ban all Russian athletes with doping record from participating in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, while leaving it to the respective international federations to decide whether individual Russian athletes will be participating in the Games.

"The Board expressed that the IOC Executive Board should be congratulated on its courageous decision not to put a blanket ban on the Russian Federation, which would have been extremely unfair to any clean Russian athlete, who had no part in any of the alleged activities mentioned in the McLaren Report," the World Archery said.

The federation added that the Russian archers have been subject to additional doping testing, both in- and out-of-competition.