IOC: Russian Team Must Pass Through Three-Level System to Compete in Rio Games

The Russian Olympic team has to go through a three-level admission process to get to the Olympic Games in Rio, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach said Sunday at a press conference.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Sputnik) — Bach told journalists that the first step was the filter of the international federations that could confirm the results of the international tests of each athlete. The second filter consists in the fact that the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) will not be able to add athletes who have ever violated anti-doping rules. The third filter is the decision of the IOC, based on the independent experts' opinions and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The IOC was currently in the third stage, after the Executive Committee's decision to delegate the final decision on the acceptance of entries of Russian athletes to a review panel composed of three IOC executive board members, headed by the chief of the IOC medical commission, he explained.

The independent International Olympic Committee commission on Russian team's participation in Rio Olympics has already begun its work and is headed by Dr. Ugur Erdener, Bach said.

The Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will be held on August 5 — 21. On Saturday, Director of Communications at IOC Mark Adams told reporters that Juan Antonio Samaranch, son of the seventh president of the IOC, and IOC Athletes' Commission Chair Claudia Bokel are included in the commission as well.

IOC Has Done Utmost to Protect Clean Athletes — President

The IOC has done everything possible to protect clean athletes all over the world, Bach said.

"Imagine the situation if we would not have taken the decision [to admit Russian team]… I trust the people that they will realize the difficulties we are in, they will realize that we did our best to address this situation in a way which allows protecting all clean athletes all over the world," Bach said at the press conference.

He expressed hope that the situation with the Russian team would not affect Rio Games negatively, as the people would realize all the hardships the committee was going through.

On July 24, the IOC announced its decision to ban all Russian athletes with a record of doping violations from participating in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, while leaving it to the respective international federations to decide whether individual Russian athletes should be allowed to compete in the Games.

The IOC commission would further analyze the situation with the Russian doping use allegations before and after the Rio Olympics.

"Now is the time to resolve this situation. Before the Games start, and then after the Olympic Games, there will be more time to carefully analyze the whole situation, and I would advise everybody… to study this situation with a certain distance and not under this moment of very emotional and passionate debates," Bach said.

Bach said that he had not contacted any Russian government officials since the publication of the so-called McLaren report on alleged doping among Russian athletes.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) released the report compiled by a WADA commission led by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren on July 18.

"No, I haven’t been talking to any Russian government official since the publication of the McLaren report and not even in the… days or weeks preceding [the publication]," Bach told reporters.