Doping clouds IOC meet ahead of Rio

Wrestling champion giving up Olympic place

LAUSANNE, May 31, (Agencies): With the International Olympic Committee striving to keep drug cheats out of the Rio Games amid a series of doping scandals, this week’s meeting of IOC top brass should be closely watched.

The Summer Games in the Brazilian city are just two months away, but much remains uncertain, especially the fate of Russian athletes.

Russia has been at the centre of a widening doping crisis, which has led the IOC to retest samples from past competitions.

So far, re-analysis has found 31 new doping failures from the 2008 Games in Beijing and another 23 from London 2012. At least 14 Russian athletes are implicated.

Any athlete whose guilt is confirmed on a second test will be barred from Rio and the IOC said more positive tests could be revealed in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Russia’s athletics federation is facing an outright ban from Rio following a November suspension by governing body the IAAF, enforced after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accused the federation of “state-sponsored” cheating.

Meeting at its Lausanne, Switzerland headquarters from Wednesday to Friday, the IOC’s executive board will receive a briefing on the re-testing campaign and from WADA chief Craig Reedie on the main findings of the Russia probe.

The goal is “to keep the dopers away from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro,” IOC President Thomas Bach said last week. “This is why we are acting swiftly now.”

Meanwhile, Rio de Janeiro’s city government said on Monday it had canceled its contract with the company constructing the Olympic velodrome about two months before the start of the Summer Games in Brazil, after the firm filed for bankruptcy protection.

Rio-based Tecnosolo “did not have the conditions to continue being technically responsible for the construction of the velodrome,” the municipal government said in a statement.

The city said the change would not impact the value or delivery of the project, which is set to be handed over to Olympic organizers in June.

Organisers of the 2016 Paralympic Games are giving away half a million tickets 100 days before the start of competition in a bid to boost support for September’s events, officials said on Monday.

Sales have lagged and Rio de Janeiro said it was buying 500,000 tickets to give to city employees, students and the handicapped.

Before the announcement, only 720,000 out of the total 3.3 million tickets had been sold, Donovan Ferreti, director of ticketing, told reporters.

A two-time wrestling world champion said Tuesday he is giving up his place at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after a brawl marred a Russian qualifying tournament.

Viktor Lebedev was competing against Ismail Musukayev in a semifinal bout at the Russian nationals on Friday when Musukayev was angered by refereeing calls against him and shoved Lebedev.

Musukayev’s supporters and coaches charged into the ring, prompting a scuffle that was broken up by riot police. Wrestlers from Musukayev’s home region of Dagestan then boycotted the tournament in protest at the standard of refereeing, causing a nationwide scandal.

Lebedev told

local news

outlet News.Ykt on Tuesday that he is withdrawing from the Olympic team as “a matter of honor” because he feels officials gave him favorable calls in front of his home crowd in the Siberian city of Yakutsk.

“Let’s say I win Olympic gold. I don’t doubt that I could win it,” he said. “Even if I were to climb onto that podium with the gold, I wouldn’t have those emotions. I wouldn’t be especially happy that my dream had come true.”

Lebedev said Musukayev had been wronged but insisted his opponent had been wrong to start the brawl. “You can’t behave that way regardless of how the judging goes for you,” he said.

The Wallabies’ two World Cup wins have long stood as Australia’s proudest achievements in rugby, but the nation’s dominant women’s sevens team hope to set a new benchmark by winning gold at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

The team captured Australia’s first World Series title on Sunday, finishing runner-up in the final event in the French university town of ClermontFerrand.

Plaudits have come thick and fast from sports-mad Australia, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull among the fans offering congratulations through social media.

The win might have seemed a good enough excuse to open a few bottles of choice French wine, but with the Olympics on the horizon the players opted to toast their win over a sober breakfast of crepes in a central Clermont-Ferrand cafe.

“No sore heads,” head coach Tim Walsh told Reuters in a telephone interview. “When it was 100 days to go to Rio, all the girls made a little pact on how to prepare.”