A much-depleted Russian team has departed for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, missing dozens of athletes who were excluded amid the country’s doping scandal.
Team members left on a charter flight from Moscow’s Sheremetevo airport to Brazil on Thursday, a day after an emotional farewell ceremony with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
More than 100 athletes from what was originally a 387-strong team have been barred from competing in Rio by international sports federations under sanctions which most Russian athletes consider unfair.
A much-depleted Russian team departed for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday
Team Russia has been under fire after the country’s huge doping scandal was revealed
More than 100 athletes from what was originally a 387-strong team have been barred from Rio
‘We’re after medals, that’s it,’ handball player Anna Sen said. ‘We need to fight for those athletes who were disqualified.’
Ignoring what he called ‘provocations addressed at our team and our mighty country,’ volleyball player Sergei Tetyukhin said: ‘Today, as never before, we need to stay united and become a family.’
No track and field athletes were among the contingent heading for Rio on Thursday’s flight with the entire track team banned from competing – save for a single American-based long jumper – following revelations of widespread doping.
The track team did, however, attend the ceremonial farewell with Putin on Wednesday, when the Russian president branded restrictions on Russia ‘pure discrimination.’
Russian athletes who have been allowed to compete have vowed to try and win gold for those disqualified
Russian volleyball player Sergey Tetyukhin (right) speaks during the farewell ceremony
Russian president Vladamir Putin bid the team farewell alongside banned pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva
While Russia avoided a blanket ban from the games at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee board on Sunday, the IOC imposed new restrictions on Russia.
International sports federations must now remove any athlete previously banned for doping or who was implicated in last week’s McLaren report alleging a mass cover up of failed drug tests.
Since the new rules came in, some federations have taken a tough line, with exclusions of much of Russia’s team from events such as rowing, canoeing and swimming.
Other sports, such as judo and tennis, have allowed the entire Russian team to compete in their event. These rulings must still be ratified by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Russia’s weightlifting team has been dogged by doping cases and faced further embarrassment on Wednesday when retests from the 2012 Olympics saw four samples, including three from medalists, test positive.
The Russian lifting team risks being banned from the Rio Games en masse because of the large number of failures in retests from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
The presence of any Russian athletes in Rio is of huge controversy given the events of recent weeks
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