IOC Decides Not To Ban Entire Russian Team From Olympics

Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in Rio despite the massive, government-sponsored doping program in that country after a decision released today by the IOC that outlines the specific conditions under which athletes will be qualified to compete.

Those conditions mostly amount to “if your sport’s governing body is OK with you, we’re OK with you.” Of course, nearly every world sport federation is busy organizing its travel to Brazil, and never expected to have to individually examine every Russian athlete—of which more than 300 were qualified to compete in Rio. Having had the buck passed to them by the IOC, it’s hard to know how most federations will respond. (Russia’s track and field athletes’ fate has already been decided by the IAAF. They’re fully banned.)

The Daily Mail had, previously, published a story announcing the IOC would fully ban Russia and that runner (and WADA whistleblower) Iuliia Stepanova would be permitted to compete under a neutral flag. Neither of those things are true.