MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On July 24, the IOC ruled against a blanket ban on the entire Russian team amid the doping scandal and left it to the respective international federations to decide on whether individual Russian athletes will be participating in the Rio Olympics.
"The decision of the IOC Executive Board was unanimous and it followed the principles of the Olympic Summit, which were also unanimously agreed by all stakeholders…This decision is about justice. Justice has to be independent from politics. Whoever responds to a violation of the law with another violation of the law is destroying justice," Bach said at the opening ceremony of the 129th IOC session in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.
The president stressed that the IOC could not deprive an athlete of the human right to be given the opportunity to prove innocence.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko welcomed the IOC decision as balanced and objective.
