IOC set-up 3-person panel to decide fate of Russian athletes for Rio Olympics

Rio de Janeiro: A three-person International Olympic Committee panel will make a final ruling on which individual Russian athletes are allowed to compete in the Rio de Janeiro Games.

The IOC's ruling executive board, met yesterday for the final time before the opening of the Games next Friday, said the panel will decide on the entry of Russian athletes whose names have been forwarded to compete by their international sports federations and approved by an independent arbitrator.

"This panel will decide whether to accept or reject that final proposal," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. "We want to make it absolutely clear that we are the ones making the final call."

The move comes amid a doping scandal that has led to the exclusion of more than 100 Russian athletes connected to state-sponsored cheating. More than 250 Russian athletes have been cleared to compete by the federations.

The panel will have to make its ruling before the opening ceremony, just five days away.

"We're working on a very, very tight timeline," Adams said. "It has to be finished by Friday at the very latest."

The panel will consist of three executive board members: Turkey's Ugur Erdener, chairman of the IOC medical commission; Germany's Claudia Bokel, head of the athletes' commission; and Spain's Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., a vice president of the modern pentathlon federation.

Adams said the panel will review every athlete cleared by the federations, but would not reopen the cases of those who have been barred. An arbitrator from the Court of Arbitration for Sport will make an initial ruling before the final decision goes to the IOC panel.

"This review board panel will look at every single decision, every single athlete, to make sure the IOC is happy with the decision that's been taken," Adams said. "It's very important that the IOC makes the final decision based on independent advice."

Saturday's meeting came less than a week after the IOC board decided not to ban Russia's entire team from the games because of state-sponsored doping. Rejecting calls by more than a dozen anti-doping agencies for a complete ban on Russia, the IOC left it to the federations to vet which athletes could compete or not.