Russian Sailors to Compete at Rio Games

(July 25, 2016) – As the governing body for the sport of sailing, World Sailing will be allowing Russian athletes to compete at the Rio Olympics, spokesman for the All-Russia Sailing Federation (ARSF) Alexei Zhirov said today.

“The Sailing federation has no claims to us and the Russian team will compete in its full composition in Rio,” Zhirov said. “The team is already in Brazil, in combat readiness. They are undergoing acclimatization.”

The Russian sailing team at the Rio Olympics is represented by Sergey Komissarov (Laser), Stefania Elfutina (RS:X W), Max Oberemko (RS:X M), Pavel Sozykin/ Denis Gribanov (470 M), and Alisa Kirilyuk/ Liudmila Dmitrieva (470 W).

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission chaired by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren released a report on July 18 on the results of its probe into the accusations of doping and manipulation of tests by Russian athletes and officials at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

The report claimed that the commission found evidence that Russia’s Sports Ministry and the Center for the Training of Russian National Teams and the Federal Security Service had covered up the doping program in Russian sports.

At its conference call on July 24, the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided against barring the Russian national team from participation in the Rio Olympics, instead placing the decision on each sport’s international authority whether to admit Russian athletes to the Summer Olympic Games in Brazil.

Sailing at the Summer Olympic Games in Brazil will be held on August 8-19.

Source: TASS Russian News Agency

Editor’s note: We have learned from World Sailing that the Russian News Agency, TASS, has been misinformed. See below:

WORLD SAILING STATEMENT – Eligibility of Sailing Athletes from Russia
Having received the decision on 24 July 2016 by the International Olympic Committee Executive Board, World Sailing will now convene a meeting of its Board of Directors early this week to make a final determination regarding the eligibility of the seven sailing athletes who have met the Olympic Qualification Standard and have been nominated by the Russian National Olympic Committee to compete in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Decisions regarding the eligibility of athletes will be made in full adherence to the rules and eligibility guidelines of World Sailing.

Once the determinations regarding eligibility have been made in-line with the IOC announcement, the athletes and their Member National Authority will be notified, after which World Sailing will issue a press release addressing the eligibility of the Russian athletes.