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25 April 2024

Olympics: Efimova, six other Russian swimmers ruled out of Rio

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By Agencies

Seven Russian swimmers, including four-times breaststroke world champion Yulia Efimova, are ineligible to compete in the Rio Olympics, world swimming's governing body FINA said on Monday.

Mikhail Dovgalyuk, Natalia Lovtcova and marathon swimmer Anastasia Krapivina were withdrawn by the Russian Olympic Committee along with Efimova, it said in a statement.

Nikita Lobintsev, Vladimir Morozov and Daria Ustinova were  ineligible for Rio as their names appeared in the recent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Person report, added the world body.

The International Olympic Committee ruled on Sunday not to impose a blanket ban on Russian athletes due to the country's doping history, allowing sports federations to decide on individual cases.

However, it said that athletes who have been sanctioned in the past for doping will not be eligible.

"FINA acknowledges and supports the IOC's position in respect of the participation of clean Russian athletes to the Olympic Games in Rio," the swimming body said in its statement.

Efimova, who trains with the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, was disqualified from competing by FINA between October, 2013 and February, 2015 after testing positive for traces of the anabolic steroid DHEA.

The 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, in the 200m breaststroke, returned from her ban last year and won 100m gold at the world championships in Kazan, Russia, in August as well as a 50m bronze.

The 24-year-old also tested positive for Meldonium this year but FINA dropped charges against her earlier in July and said she was free to compete.

Efimova's agent Andrew Mitkov told Russian media before FINA's statement that the swimmer would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if denied the chance to compete at the Games.

The possibility of Efimova competing in the Rio Olympics was already a major talking point in the sport.

Lithuania's Olympic 100 metres breaststroke champion Ruta Meilutyte said last year, after being beaten by Efimova at the world championships, that she could not see the Russian as "a true honest competitor any more".

Relay swimmer Lovtcova was handed a two-and-a-half year ban for doping in 2013, backdated to November 2012.

Krapivina collected a five-month ban in October 2013.     

Doping scandal

Whistleblower Yulia Stepanova, who helped uncover the biggest doping scandal in decades which threatened to exclude Russia from the Olympics, asked on Monday for a review of her ban from the Rio Games in a last-ditch attempt to compete there.

Stepanova's hopes of running in Rio next month as an independent athlete where dashed when the International Olympic Committee ruled on Sunday that no Russian with a doping background could take part.

In a statement issued by Stepanova and her husband Vitaly, however, they said they had written to the IOC asking for a review, 10 days before the start of the Games in the Brazilian metropolis.

"The (IOC) decision is unfair as based on wrong and untrue statements," they said. The world athletics federation (IAAF) had praised her contribution to the fight against doping and cleared her to compete as a neutral athlete.

The IOC invited the middle-distance runner and her husband to attend next month's Games as guests but denied her a competitive spot in Rio, arguing her doping-tainted past made her ineligible.

The IOC had also said Stepanova had refused to compete as a member of the Russian team, a claim she rejects.

"Yulia made it absolutely clear that this was not based on her wish to not compete under the Russian flag, but rather on the hostile treatment and threats she had received since December 2014 up to yesterday," the pair said.

Stepanova, who provided evidence of doping in a series of German broadcaster ARD documentaries, has fled Russia and is living in hiding at an undisclosed location in North America, fearing for her safety.

The IOC said any Russian athlete with a doping past, including Stepanova, would not be allowed to compete in Rio as it tightened controls following the fallout from the doping scandal involving their country.

Stepanova said the decision went against rulings of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which had struck down part of the Olympic Charter blocking sanctioned athletes from future Games, known as the "Osaka rule".

In making its decision, CAS had argued there could not be a double punishment for already-sanctioned athletes.