Russian swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev yet to be cleared for Rio
By AFP
Last Updated: 02/08/16 7:38pm
Swimming's governing body FINA says Russians Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev have yet to be cleared to compete in the Olympics, contrary to reports in Russia.
The swimming federation issued a statement saying that both swimmers were implicated in the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) independent report that found evidence of a state-backed system of covering up doping in Russia.
They were among seven Russian swimmers excluded from the Rio Games, which start on Friday, and took their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
FINA said that CAS had forwarded its recommendations to the three-person International Olympic Committee commission to review Russian entrants, and their status would not be confirmed until that IOC panel rules.
"Contrary to recent media reports, the eligibility of Russian swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev to compete at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 has not been confirmed, and will not be confirmed until the IOC's three-person commission to review Russian entrants renders its final decision on these athletes, along with the other members of the Russian swimming team," a FINA statement said.
"The FINA Bureau initially did not include Morozov and Lobintsev on the list of eligible competitors, in respect of the IOC's ruling that nobody implicated in the WADA IP Report may be accredited for entry in the Olympic Games. Both athletes were named in the WADA IP Report.
"The two athletes filled an appeal to CAS and FINA understands that this Court has forwarded the case to the IOC three-person commission for final decision."
But speaking to Interfax news agency in Russia, Lobintsev's agent, Andrei Mitkov said that both would be allowed to compete.
"We will meet with IOC representatives to discuss the outcome for this situation," he said.
Morozov, 24, and Lobintsev, 27, have called on CAS to declare "invalid and unenforceable" an IOC order for federations to exclude athletes implicated in the investigation into Russia's state-run doping system.
FINA said it was committed to a clean competition in Rio, saying it had conducted 2,177 unannounced out-of-competition tests on Rio-bound swimmers from January through July of this year and spent some $1.8m (£1.3m) on drug testing.
With concerns raised in the wake of revelations that drug test samples were tampered with during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, FINA said it had re-tested samples that Russian Rio hopefuls had given at the World Championships in Kazan last year.
"These samples, retested at the Barcelona laboratory, where they have been stored, returned no adverse findings," FINA said.
