After deciding against a blanket ban on Russia, IOC chief Thomas Bach says individual athletes have to fulfil tough criteria to come out clean
Yelena Isinbayeva
Geneva: International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach yesterday stressed that Russian competitors have to pass an extremely rigorous set of criteria before being cleared for the Rio Games.
Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva is one of the 67 Russian track and field athletes, who were banned by IAAF over state-run doping. Pic/getty images
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"We have set the bar to the limit", Bach said after the IOC decided against a blanket ban on the entire Russian team over state-run doping.
Each Russian Olympic hopeful must be individually cleared by his or her respective sports federation. An expert from the Court of Arbitration for Sport must then approve the federation’s decision, with the IOC having the final word.
Thomas Bach
That process must be carried out for the more than 300 athletes nominated for Rio by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) within two weeks, with the Games set to start on August 5.
"This is a very ambitious timeline, but we had no choice," Bach said.
Russian athletes "have to assume a collective responsibility", for operating in such a corrupt system, he said. But rather than implementing an outright ban, the IOC wanted to send "a message of encouragement to the clean Russian athletes to show that they are clean." "It’s fine to talk about collective responsibility," Bach said, "but at the end of the day you have to be able to look in the eyes of every athlete concerned."
Asked how he would respond to critics accusing the IOC of treating Russia too softly, Bach said: "read the decision", stressing that the ROC was being treated more harshly than every other national committee.
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